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Knight  Letter 


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The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America 


Winter  2003 


Volume  II  Issue  2 


Number  72 


Knight  Letter  \s  the  official  magazine  of  the  Lewis  Carroll 

Society  of  North  America.  It  is  published  several  times  a  year 

and  is  distributed  free  to  all  members.  Subscriptions,  business 

correspondence,  and  inquiries  should  be  addressed  to  the 

Secretary,  PO  Box  204,  Napa  CA  94559.  Annual  membership  dues 

are  U.S.  $20  (regular)  and  $50  (sustaining). 

Submissions  and  editorial  correspondence  should  be  sent  to  the 

Editor,  preferably  by  email  (wrabbit@worldpassage.net),  or  mailed 

to  PO  Box  2006,  Mill  Valley  CA  94942. 


ISSN  0193-886X 

Mark  Burstein,  Editor  in  Chief 

Matthew  Demakos,  Editor  of  "The  Rectory  Umbrella" 

Andrew  H.  Ogus,  Designer 


The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America 

President: 
Alan  Tannenbaum,  tannenbaum@mindspring.com 

Vice-President: 
^    .  Mark  Burstein,  wrabbit@worldpassage.net 

Secretary: 
Cindy  Watter,  hedgehogccw@sbcglobal.net 

www.LewisCarroll.org 


On  the  Front  Cover: 

The  White  Rabbit  from  Ralph  Steadman's  Alice  in  Wonderland  (Toronto: 

Firefly  Books,  2003)  is  ©  2003  Ralph  Steadman  and  used  by  permission. 

See  also  page  37  in  this  issue.  Mr.  Steadman  welcomes  visitors  to 

www.RalphSteadman.com. 


-^^ 


Contents 


^^ 


THe   ReCTORY  UMBRGLLA 

Mr.  Dodgson  and  the  Royal  Family 
Edward  Wakeling 

1 

High  Society  Days  in  New  York 
August  A.  Imholtz  Jr. 

9 

Still  More  Contemporary  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Reviews 
August  A.  Imholtz  Jr.  and  Clare  Imholtz 

14 

The  Authentic  Wasp 
Matthew  Demakos 

15 

The  G(ig  Writer 
Clare  Imholtz 

26 

MISCHMASCH 

m 

LGAVeS   FROM 
THS   DeANGRY  GARDSN 

28 

In  Memoriam:  Derek  Hudson 
32 

RAVINGS   FROM 

THG   WRITING   DGSK 

.AJan  Tannenbaum 

33 

SGRGNDIPITY 
34 

Le  leme  Colloque  International  Lewis  Carroll 
Lawrence  Gasquet 

35 


OF   BOOKS  AND  THINGS 
36 

See  You  in  the  Funny  Papers 
If  You  Meet  Sabuda  On  the  Road 

In  Brief 

Ready,  Aim,  Firefly! 
Mark  Burstein 

A  Dark  Vision 
Larry  Hall 

Hep,  Hep,  Hooray! 
David  Schaefer 

Lewis  Carroll  and  His  Illustrators 

GARROLLIAN   NOTGS 
43 

From  the  Antipathies 

Addenda,  Errata,  Corrigenda,  &'  Illuminata 

«7""7 

Sic,  sic,  sic 

Picturing  Dreams 
Andrew  Sell  on 

The  Dodgson  Condensation 
Francine  Abeles 

FROM   OUR   FAR-FLUNG 
CORReSPONDGNTS 

47 

Books — A rticles — Cyberspace — Conferences  and 

Lectures — Exhibitions — Performances  Noted — 

Auctions — Media — Things 


■""BSSB^BBI^ 


"She  ate  a  little  bit,  and  said  anxiously  to  herself  'Which  xvay?  Which  way?' 
holding  her  hand  on  the  top  of  her  head  to  feel  which  xvay  it  was  groioing. . ." 

We  have  been  just  overwhelmed  by  the  universally  positive  response  to 
our  redesign  of  the  Knight  Letter,  and  promise  to  keep  on  improving 
things.  Designer  Andrew  Ogus  did  a  magnificent  job  with  the 
previous  issue  (and  this  one!)  and  will  continue  in  this  capacity.  We  have  also 
doubled  our  "staff,"  with  the  turning  over  of  many  editorial  responsibilities  for 
the  "Rectory  Umbrella"  section  to  Matt  Demakos.  He  and  I  have  engaged  in 
a  lengthy  dialogue  in  cyberspace  to  further  tighten  up  the  standards  of  style, 
language,  and  practice.  We  have  accepted  The  Chicago  Manual  of  Style,  fifteenth 
edition,  as  our  guide  and  thus,  in  contrast  to  past  practices,  have  "translated"  all 
articles  into  American  spelling,  grammar,  and  punctuation — the  only  exceptions 
being  when  certain  material  is  directly  quoted. 

We  have  also  collaborated  on  a  style  guide.  Articles  are  by  and  large  sup- 
plied with  endnotes  rather  than  footnotes,  and  editorial  comments  are  now 
clearly  marked  as  such.  We  have  also  been  stricter  about  the  use  of  abbreviations 
and  shortened  titles.  Furthermore,  we  are  now  officially  a  periodical,  having 
registered  with  the  National  Serials  Data  Program  of  the  Library  of  Congress 
and  possess  an  International  Standard  Serial  Number  (ISSN). 

"The  Rectory  Umbrella"  in  this  issue  features  the  first  part  of  a  fine  study, 
"Mr.  Dodgson  and  the  Royal  Family,"  by  Edward  Wakeling,  editor  of  the  new 
multi-volume  edition  of  the  Diaries  being  published  by  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society 
(UK).  Matt  Demakos  has  himself  given  us  a  scholarly  musing  on  the  authenticity 
of  the  "Wasp  in  the  Wig"  episode,  August  Imholtz  has  contributed  an  amusing 
report  of  our  fall  meeting,  and  Clare  Imholtz  has  discovered  a  previously  un- 
known set  of  drawings  by  the  venerable  Wanda  Gag. 

Our  valued  contributors,  other  than  those  credited  in  bylines,  include:  Earl 
Abbe,  Fran  Abeles,  Joel  Birenbaum,  Gary  Brockman,  Llisa  Demetrios  Burstein, 
Sandor  Burstein,  Angelica  Carpenter,  Patt  Griffin,  Armelle  Futterman,  August 
Imholtz,  Clare  Imholtz,  Stan  Isaacs,  Janet  Jurist,  Devra  Kunin,  Hugues  Lebailly, 
Charles  Lovett,  Stephanie  Lovett,  Dayna  McCausland,  Lucille  Posner,  Andrew 
Sellon,  Alan  Tannenbaum,  Alison  Tannenbaum,  Edward  Wakeling,  and  Cindy 
Watter. 

Given  the  current  volume  of  this  magazine  and  its  overworked  staff,  it  is 
most  likely  that  this  publication  will  become  officially  semiannual. 

Ad  majorem  Carrolli  gloriam! 


Mark  Burstein 


THe   ReCTORY  UMBRSLLA 


Mk.  Dodgson  and  ihe  Rojal  Vamily 


Edward  Wakeling 


Part  I:  Queen  Victoria  and  Her  Family 


INTRODUCTION 

Charles  L.  Dodgson  was  acquainted  with  various  members 
of  the  Royal  Family  headed  by  Queen  Victoria,  some  to  a 
greater  and  some  to  a  lesser  degree.  WTiat  was  his  attitude 
to  royalty?  How  did  he  come  to  make  their  acquaintance? 
What  was  their  reaction  to  him?  Did  Dodgson's  personal 
knowledge  of  members  of  the  Royal  Family  influence  his 
writing?  I  will  attempt  to  answer  all  these  questions  and, 
ultimately,  explain  Dodgson's  relationship  with  some  par- 
ticular members  of  the  Royal  Family,  which  can  only  be 
described  as  intimate  and  friendly. 

Both  of  his  Alice  books  abound  with  royalty.  They 
contain  kings  and  queens,  royal  children,  coiuliers  and 
extended  members  of  a  royal  family  such  as  a  marchio- 
ness (in  the  original  story)  and  a  duchess.  Part  of  this  is 
because  Dodgson  adopted  the  games  of  playing  caixls  and 
chess  to  structure  his  two  stories.  But  the  royal  members 
are  given  key  roles;  their  parts  are  important  and  their 
dialogue  is  significant  and  memorable. 

"Where  do  you  come  from?"  said  the  Red  Queen. 
"And  where  are  you  going?  Look  up,  speak  nicely, 
and  don't  twiddle  your  fingers  all  the  time." 

Alice  attended  to  all  these  directions,  and  ex- 
plained, as  well  as  she  could,  that  she  had  lost  her 
way. 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean  by  your  ■wAy,''  said 
the  Queen:  "all  the  ways  about  here  belong  to  me — 
but  why  did  you  come  out  here  at  all?"  she  added  in 


a  kinder  tone,  "(kirtsey  while  you're  thinking  what  to 
say.  It  saves  time."' 

There  is  a  strong  sense  that  Dodgson  is  parodying  the 
way  that  adults  instruct  children,  with  an  emphasis  on 
"instructing"  rather  than  "talking  to."  Maybe  it's  the 
governess  who  speaks  here.  Miss  Prickett,  governess  to 
the  Liddell  children — or  "Pricks"  as  the  children  called 
her — had  a  reputation  for  being  very  much  in  control 
and  in  charge.  Dodgson  once  described:  "The  Red  Queen 
...  as  a  Fury  .  .  .  /ler  passion  must  be  cold  and  calm;  she 
must  be  formal  and  strict,  yet  not  unkindly;  pedantic  to 
the  tenth  degree,  the  concentrated  essence  of  all  govern- 
esses."- Alice  and  her  sisters  may  have  recognized  the 
parody  of  the  instructions  given  to  them  whenever  they 
were  introduced  to  royalty. 

Each  of  the  Oxford  colleges  has  assigned  to  them  a 
"Visitor"  (with  a  capital  "V").  This  is  someone  with  status. 
This  nominated  person  pays  an  official  visit  to  the  college 
to  ensure  that  all  is  proceeding  according  to  the  demands 
of  tradition,  protocol,  and  custom.  The  Visitor  of  CHuist 
Church  is  usually  the  reigning  monarch  although  on  occa- 
sions it  has  been  the  Lord  Chancellor.  Queen  Victoria  was 
Visitor  and  made  several  journeys  to  Christ  Church  during 
her  reign,  always  spending  time  at  the  Deanery. 

The  college  was  founded  by  Henry  \1II  under  letters 
patent  dated  November  4,  1546.  However,  the  buildings 
were  begun  in  1.525  when  Cardinal  Wolsey,  then  at  the 
height  of  his  power  and  fame,  decided  to  create  the  col- 

1 


Queen  Victoria 

1819-1901 

m.  Albert 

1819-1861 

Prince  Consort 


Victoria 

1840-1901 

Princess  Royal 

Dowager  Empress  of  Germa  ny 


Albert  Edward 

1841-1910 

Prince  of  Wales 

King  Edward  VII 

m.  Alexandra 

Princess  of  Denmark 


Alice 

1843-1878 

Grand  Duchess 

of  Hesse-Darmstadt 


Alfred 

1844-1900 

Duke  of  Edinburgh 

and  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 


Helena 

1846-1923 

Princess  Helena 

of  Schleswig-Hols  tei  n 


Louise 

1848-1939 
Dowager  Duchess  of  Argyll 


Arthur 

1850-1942 
Duke  of  Con  naught 


Leopold 

1853-1884 

Duke  of  Albany 

m.  Helena 

Princess 

of  Waldeck-Pynnont 

(Duchess  of  Albany) 


Beatrice 

1857-1944 
Princess  ofBattenberg 


Louise 

1867-1931 
Princess  Royal 


Frederick 

(brother  of  Alexandra) 

1843-1912 

Crown  Prince  of  Denmark 

King  of  Denmark 


Alice 

1883-1981 
Countess  ofAthlone 


Charles  Edward 

1884-1954 
Duke  of  Albany 


Queen  Victcma  had  nine  children  and,  eventually,  nine  sons-  and 
daughters-in-law.    The  members  of  the  Royal  Family  that  Dodgson 
met  or  corresponded  with  are  shown  in  bold  type.    This  chart  also 
shows  Frederick,  the  Crown  Prince  of  Denmark,  once  photographed  by 
Dodgson,  the  brother  of  Princess  Alexandra,  who  married  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  The  Queen  had  many  grandchildren,  only  three  of  whom 
are  shown  above.   The  two  children  of  Prince  Leopold  are  the  subject 
of  part  two  of  this  article. 


lege  under  royal  license,  and  to  name  it  Cardinal  College. 
It  was  projected  on  a  magnificent  scale  and  supported  fi- 
nancially by  Wolsey  from  his  own  private  wealth.  Cardinal 
Wolsey  fell  out  of  the  King's  favor  in  1529  and  all  his  pos- 
sessions were  forfeited  to  the  Crown,  and  Cardinal  College 
in  its  incomplete  state  was  dissolved.  But,  in  1532,  Henry 
established  a  new  college  on  the  same  site,  calling  it  King 
Henry  VIII's  College  in  Oxford.  In  1545  the  college  "Christ 
Church"  was  established,  combining  the  academic  college 
with  the  new  Oxford  Cathedral  which  was  built  on  the  site 
to  replace  the  old  Cathedral  at  Osney.  The  link  with  the 
royal  household  was  firmly  established  and  remains  to 
this  day.  Our  present  Queen,  her  sculptured  head  resting 
below  the  great  Holbein  portrait  of  Henry  VIII  in  central 
position  at  the  far  end  of  Hall,  is  today's  Visitor  of  Christ 
Church.  She  makes  private  visits  to  the  Deanery  from  time 
to  time. 

Queen  Victoria  succeeded  to  the  throne  following 
the  death  of  her  uncle  William  IV  in  1837.  Hence,  by 
the  time  that  Dodgson  came  to  Christ  Church  in  1851 
as  an  undergraduate,  the  Queen  was  already  the  Visitor. 
Thomas  Gaisford  was  made  Dean  in  1831  and  there- 
fore his  appointment  was  not  influenced  by  the  Queen. 
However,  when  he  died  in  1855,  the  new  appointment 
of  Henry  Liddell  was  made  by  Lord  Palmerston  with  her 
approval.  Liddell  was  already  well-known  to  the  Queen.  In 
1846  he  was  appointed  Domestic  Chaplain  to  the  Prince 
Consort,  and  this  required  him  to  preach  at  Windsor  in 
the  presence  of  the  Royal  Family.  He  was  also  appointed 
Headmaster  of  Westminster  School  in  the  same  year,  and 
this  brought  about  Royal  patronage. 

As  an  undergraduate,  Dodgson  was  unlikely  to  meet 
the  Queen,  but  when  he  was  appointed  Mathematical 
Lecturer  in  1855,  this  position  changed.  The  Liddells 
frequently  entertained  members  of  the  University  at  the 
Deanery  including  the  Visitor,  and  Dodgson  received  invi- 
tations to  attend.  His  first  meeting  with  the  Royal  Family 
at  the  Deanery  came  in  1860.  However,  he  mentions  the 
Queen  in  his  diary  for  the  first  time  in  1855.  On  May  17  he 
wrote:  "I  hear  that  Millais'  picture  of  'The  Rescue'  in  the 
R.  A.  [Royal  Academy]  this  year  is  considered  very  fine:  as 
also  Leighton's  picture  of  Cimabue's  Madonna,  which  the 
Queen  has  given  600  guineas  for — but  it  is  said  to  be  the 
poorest  exhibition  for  years. "'^ 

THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES  AT  OXFORD 

During  the  summer  of  1858,  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince 
Albert  bestowed  a  special  honor  on  Christ  Church — they 
decided  to  send  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Oxford,  and  Christ 
Church  was  the  chosen  college  to  which  he  would  be 
attached.  Liddell  received  a  royal  summons  to  meet  the 
Queen  at  Osborne  House  to  discuss  arrangements.  Henry 
Acland,  friend  and  doctor  to  Liddell,  was  also  summoned; 
he  was  to  be  the  Prince  of  Wales'  medical  adviser.  The 
Prince  iTiatriculated  on  October  18,  1859.  Liddell  record- 
ed the  ceremony  in  a  letter  to  his  father: 

He  came  down  in  a  royal  carriage  (not  by  special 
train)  at  about  four  o'clock.  I  received  him  on  the 
platform,  and  followed  him  to  his  house.  The  Vice- 


Chancellor  and  Proctors  then  called  to  pay  their 
respects;  then  the  Mayor  and  two  Aldermen  with 
an  address;  I  standing  by  and  introducing  them. 
Then  I  went  down  to  Christ  Church,  where  we  had 
the  gates  shut  and  all  the  men  drawn  up  in  the 
Quadrangle.  At  five  he  came,  and  the  bells  struck 
up  as  he  entered.  He  walked  to  my  house  between 
two  lines  of  men,  who  capped  him.  I  went  out  to 
meet  him,  and  as  we  entered  the  house  there  was  a 
spontaneous  cheer.^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Dodgson  witnessed  this 
event.  Sadly  his  diaries  are  missing  for  this  period,  so  we 
do  not  know  what  he  wrote  about  the  occasion.  The  Prince 
resided  at  Frewin  Hall  for  two  years,  attended  Chapel  and 
lectures,  and  occasionally  dined  in  Hall. 

On  December  12,  1860,  the  Queen  paid  a  visit  to  Ox- 
ford, probably  to  discuss  with  the  Dean  the  progress  of  her 
son  at  Christ  Church.  Dodgson  was  present  and  he  gave  a 
detailed  account  in  his  diary  of  his  conversation  with  the 
Prince: 

He  shook  hands  very  graciously,  and  I  began  with 
a  sort  of  apology  for  having  been  so  importunate 
about  the  photograph.  He  said  something  of  the 
weather  being  against  it,  and  I  asked  if  the  Ameri- 
cans had  victimised  him  much  as  a  sitter;  he  said 
they  had,  but  he  did  not  think  they  had  succeeded 
well,  and  I  told  him  of  the  new  American  process 
of  taking  twelve  thousand  photographs  in  an  hour. 
Edith  Liddell  coming  by  at  the  moment,  1  remarked 
on  the  beautiful  tableau  which  the  children  might 
make:  he  assented,  and  also  said,  in  answer  to  my 
question,  that  he  had  seen  and  admired  my  photo- 
graphs of  them.  I  then  said  that  I  hoped,  as  I  had 
missed  the  photograph,  he  would  at  least  give  me 
his  autograph  in  my  album,  which  he  promised  to 
do.  Thinking  I  had  better  bring  the  talk  to  an  end, 
I  concluded  by  saying  that,  if  he  would  like  copies 
of  any  of  my  photographs,  1  should  feel  honoured 
by  his  accepting  them;  he  thanked  me  for  this,  and 
I  then  drew  back,  as  he  did  not  seem  inclined  to 
pursue  the  conversation."' 

By  this  time,  Dodgson  had  taken  a  number  of  photo- 
graphs of  the  Liddell  children,  and  clearly  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  already  seen  some  of  them,  probably  in  albums 
at  the  Deanery.  The  photograph  of  the  three  children  on 
a  sofa  was  taken  in  the  Deanery  garden  in  1858.  Alice  and 
Lorina  dressed  in  Chinese  costume  and  the  photograph 
of  Alice  and  Lorina  on  a  see-saw  in  the  Deanery  garden 
were  taken  in  1860. 

Dodgson's  rather  bland  account  of  the  visit  in  his 
diary  is  in  stark  contrast  to  the  letter  he  sent  home  to  his 
brothers  and  sisters  in  which  he  recounts  the  same  occa- 
sion with  more  candour,  not  to  say  a  lack  of  royal  respect. 
"I  had  never  seen  her  [the  Queen]  so  near  before,  nor 
on  her  feet,  and  was  shocked  to  find  how  short,  not  to  say 
dumpy,  and  (with  all  loyalty  be  it  spoken),  how  plain  she 
is."  Later  in  the  letter,  Dodgson  recounted  the  tale  of  the 
Prince's  autograph: 


I  wrote  a  note  to  General  Bruce,  asking  if  I  might 
bring  my  album  to  Frewin  Hall,  and  see  the  au- 
tograph done,  pleading  that  that  would  much 
increase  its  value  in  my  eyes.  He  wrote  appointing 
10  on  Saturday,  and  added  that  the  Prince  would 
at  the  same  time  select  some  of  the  photographs.  I 
sent  over  the  box  of  albums,  and  went  at  10.  Gen- 
eral Bruce  joined  me  in  the  hall  (a  sort  of  morning 
room),  and  the  Prince  came  in  directly  afterwards, 
and  seemed  very  friendly  and  more  at  his  ease 
than  he  was  at  the  Deanery....  When  the  box  was 
opened,  he  looked  through  the  second  album,  es- 
pecially admiring  the  "cherry"  group,  the  Chinese 
group,  and  the  large  one  of  the  2  Haringtons. 

He  said  he  had  no  time  to  finish  looking 
through  them  then,  and  proposed  they  should  be 
left,  but  on  my  saying  (an  awful  breach  of  court 
etiquette,  no  doubt),  that  I  was  expecting  some 
friends  that  morning  to  see  them  (the  John  Slat- 
ters),  he  fixed  on  Tuesday  (today)  to  have  them 
sent  over  again.  He  consented  to  give  the  auto- 
graph then,  but  would  not  use  my  gold  pen,  as  I 
wanted,  saying  that  he  wrote  best  with  quill,  and 
went  to  fetch  a  good  one,  with  which  he  signed, 
adding  the  place  and  date  at  my  suggestion.  There 
ends  my  interview  with  Royalty.^ 

So,  in  this  first  meeting  with  royalty,  and  by  Dodgson's 
own  hand  the  Queen  is  "dumpy"  and  "plain" — not  much 
loyal  respect  shown  here!  His  opinion  of  the  Queen  was 
recorded  just  eighteen  months  before  the  invention  of 
Alice's  adventures  in  which  a  queen  plays  a  prominent 
part.  But  more  of  this  later. 

We  must  not  assume  that  Dodgson  was  anything  but 
a  loyal  subject  of  the  Queen.  He  had  been  brought  up  to 
respect  both  his  God  and  his  Sovereign.  In  this  he  was  cer- 
tainly steadfast.  He  was  in  all  respects  a  true  Victorian — he 
looked  up  to  the  Royal  Family  as  a  model  for  society's 
conduct.  He  was,  himself,  socially  conscious,  coming  from 
the  upper  middle  class  of  the  clergy,  the  legal  profession, 
and  officers  of  the  armed  forces.  His  forebears  came  from 
all  three  of  these  ranks  of  society.  His  own  position  as  a 
lecturer  at  Christ  Church  also  held  him  in  that  social  class. 
And  we  must  not  forget  that  he  said  he  had  a  "complete" 
photographic  set  of  members  of  the  Royal  Family,  proving 
his  admiration  of  them. 

THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES  AND  HIS  PRINCESS 

In  1863  Dodgson  had  further  contact  with  royalty,  and  it 
has  been  suggested  that  this  occasion  influenced  him  in 
the  writing  of  Through  the  Looking-Glass.  Mavis  Batey,  the 
author  of  Alice's  Adventures  in  Oxford,''  was  the  first  to  real- 
ize that  Looking-Glass  contained  echoes  of  the  wedding  of 
the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  on  March  10,  1863. 

Oxford  celebrated  the  wedding  with  illuminations 
and  a  tree-planting  ceremony  that  involved  three  children 
important  to  Dodgson:  Lorina,  Alice,  and  Edith  Liddell. 
The  event  unfolds  with  the  arrival  of  Dodgson's  brother, 
Edwin,  from  Rugby  School,  the  day  before  the  wedding,  to 
join  in  the  Oxford  celebrations.  Dodgson  wrote:  "Received 

3 


a  note  from  Alice,  asking  me  to  escort  her  round  to  see 
the  illuminations  tomorrow  evening.  Goodeve  is  to  act  as 
escort  for  Ina,  and  Bigg  for  Edith.""  Louis  Arthur  Goodeve 
and  Charles  Bigg  were,  like  Dodgson,  Students  of  Christ 
Church,  the  latter  being  a  tutor.  On  the  day  of  the  wed- 
ding, Dodgson  recorded: 

Edwin  and  I  went  into  the  Broad  Walk  to  see  the 
three  Deaner)'  children  plant  three  trees  along  the 
Cherwell,  in  memory  of  the  day,  each  delivered  a 
short  speech  over  her  tree....  we  went  to  the  Dean- 
ery for  the  children,  and  set  out.  We  soon  lost  the 
others,  and  Alice  and  I  with  Edwin,  took  the  roimd 
of  all  the  principal  streets  in  about  two  hours, 
bringing  her  home  by  half-past  nine.  The  mob  was 
dense,  but  well  conducted.  The  fireworks  abun- 
dant, and  some  of  the  illuminations  very  beautiful. 
It  was  delightful  to  see  the  thorough  abandonment 
with  which  Alice  enjoyed  the  whole  thing. 

The  Wedding-day  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  I  mark 
with  a  white  stone." 

Was  the  white  stone  for  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales,  or  some  other  activity  during  the  day? 
I  think  we  can  safely  assume  the  latter.  The  trees  planted 
by  the  children  have  not  survived;  they  were  destroyed  by 
the  devastating  outbreak  of  Dutch  elm  disease  in  the  1970s 
that  killed  off  most  of  the  trees  in  the  Broad  Walk. 

After  the  royal  wedding,  the  happy  couple  toured  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  country  so  that  they  could  be  seen  by  the 
masses.  One  visit  was  to  Oxford  the  following  June  when 
the  entourage  stayed  at  the  Deanery.  Dodgson  wrote  on 
June  15,  1863: 

Went  over  to  the  Deanery  in  the  forenoon,  and 
was  shown  the  Royal  chamber  (most  splendidly 
furnished)  and  the  things  for  the  Bazaar.  I  noticed 
also  a  magnificent  Album  (for  Cartes  de  Visite) 
hired  from  Howell  and  James,  which  had  been 
originally  made  for  the  maids  of  honour  to  give  the 
Royal  couple  (and  has  the  plume  etc.  emblazoned 
on  a  magnificent  onyx);  I  offered  to  fill  this  from 
my  own  albums,  which  I  took  over  to  the  Deanery, 
and  had  an  hour  or  two  of  work  in  transferring  the 
pictures. 

A  search  among  the  royal  archives  at  Windsor  Castle 
has  failed  to  find  this  album.  Maybe  it  was  for  show  only, 
and  the  photographs  were  subsequently  returned  to 
Dodgson  after  the  royal  couple  left  Oxford. 

The  Prince  and  Princess  arrived  the  following  day  on 
June  16.  Dodgson's  diary  provides  the  detail  from  his  per- 
spective: 

I  was  up  in  Bayne's  rooms  with  a  number  of 
friends  of  his....  I  had  my  telescope  up  there  (for 
the  accommodation  of  which  he  broke  out  a  pane 
of  one  window)  and  with  it  we  managed  to  see 
them  wonderfully  well,  as  they  stood  under  the 
awning  opposite,  for  the  Princess  to  present  to 
the  Volunteers  their  prizes....  The  children  were 
selling  some  white  kittens  (like  Persian)  and  as 
Alice  did  not  dare  offer  hers  to  the  Princess,  I  vol- 
4 


unteered  to  plead  for  her,  and  asked  the  Prince  if 
the  Princess  would  not  like  a  kitten,  on  which  she 
turned  round  and  said  to  me  "oh,  but  I've  bought 
one  of  those  kittens  already,"  (which  I  record  as  the 
only  remark  she  is  likely  ever  to  make  to  me).  Ina's 
had  been  the  favoured  one.  For  some  while  I  went 
about  with  the  children,  trying  to  get  their  kittens 
sold,  when  suddenly  the  Bazaar  was  opened,  and 
the  place  filled  with  a  dense  mob. 

Dodgson  was  in  the  habit  of  making  lengthy  diary 
entries  when  the  events  of  the  day  warranted  it.  This  is  one 
such  occasion  during  which  he  met  and  spoke  to  some  of 
the  Royals.  A  few  days  later,  on  June  23,  Dodgson  went 
back  to  the  Deanery  and  took  "two  pictures  with  dry  col- 
lodion plates  . . .  one  of  the  bedstead  in  the  Royal  room  at 
the  Deanery,  and  the  other  of  the  Deanery  and  Cathedral, 
from  Sandford's  rooms.  For  the  latter  picture  Ina  and 
Alice  sat  in  the  windows  of  the  Royal  chamber,  and  have 
come  out  very  well  in  the  picture."  These  pictures,  taken 
with  a  borrowed  camera,  have  not  come  to  light.  But  why 
should  Dodgson  want  to  photograph  the  bed  that  the 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  slept  in  during  their  honey- 
moon tour  in  Oxford? 

So  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  Through  the  Looking- 
Glass?  Well,  recall  that  in  the  first  few  paragraphs  Alice  is 
saying  "Let's  pretend  we're  kings  and  queens"  and  goes 
on  to  say  to  her  kitten  "Let's  pretend  that  you're  the  Red 
Queen,"  leading  into  the  world  of  chess,  the  game  that 
bonds  the  book  into  a  cohesive  whole.  One  can  imagine 
that  the  Liddell  children  were  all  groomed  to  do  and  say 
the  right  thing  when  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales 
became  part  of  the  household  for  a  couple  of  days,  along 
with  the  quotation  given  at  the  outset.  "Speak  in  French 
when  you  can't  think  of  the  English  for  a  thing — turn  out 
your  toes  as  you  walk — and  remember  who  you  are!"'"  was 
further  advice  from  the  Red  Queen.  One  can  almost  imag- 
ine the  tone  of  Miss  Prickett  or  even  Mrs.  Liddell  in  these 
words  of  instruction. 

Illuminations,  fireworks,  garden  fetes,  and  great  din- 
ners play  their  part  in  the  visit  of  the  newlyweds  to  Christ 
Church  and  also  in  Alice's  adventures  in  Looking-Glass 
Land.  An  entertainment  brought  to  Oxford  after  the  royal 
wedding  was  the  "Talking  Fish"  extravaganza  which  may 
have  influenced  Humpty  Dumpty's  poem  in  Looking-Glass: 

I  sent  a  message  to  the  fish: 
I  told  them  'This  is  what  I  wish' 

The  little  fishes  of  the  sea. 
They  sent  an  answer  back  to  me. 

The  little  fishes'  answer  was 

'We  cannot  do  it.  Sir,  because '" 

We'll  never  know  if  Dodgson  saw  this  "Wondrous 
Phenomenon"  at  the  Assembly  Rooms  in  Oxford,'-'  or 
whether  he  took  the  Liddell  children  with  him,  but  it  does 
seem  an  interesting  coincidence  that  the  entertainment 
and  the  poem  take  the  same  most  unusual  theme. 

Mavis  Batey  points  out  that  the  Lion  and  Unicorn 
from  the  royal  coat  of  arms,  two  other  Looking-Glass  char- 
acters, were  illuminated  on  many  of  the  Oxford  buildings 


during  the  celebrations.  Above  Canterbury  Gate  at  Christ 
Church  there  was  a  large  rotating  crown  that  Alice  could 
easily  see  from  the  Deanery.  Mavis  Batey's  book  and  her  se- 
quel, The  Adventures  ofAlice,^'^  give  more  details  of  the  links 
between  fiction  and  reality. 

FREDERICK,  THE  CROWN  PRINCE  OF  DENMARK 

Acquiring  a  set  of  professionally  produced  photographs 
of  the  Royal  Family  was  not  quite  the  same  as  getting 
them  to  sit  before  his  own  camera,  and  Dodgson  was  will- 
ing and  eager  to  undertake  this  task.  As  we  have  heard, 
he  was  unsuccessful  with  the  Prince  of  Wales.  We  can 
assume  that  he  did  not  pursue  Her  Majesty  the 
Queen  with  this  idea.  However,  he  sue 
ceeded  in  getting  the  Prince  of  Wales' 
brother-in-law  to  have  his  photograph 
taken.  Frederick,  the  Crown  Prince 
of  Denmark,  was  an  imdergraduate 
at  Christ  Church.  His  sister,  Princess 
Alexandra  of  Denmark,  had  married 
the  Prince  of  Wales  in  1863.  Another 
of  Dodgson 's  important  photograph- 
ic sitters  was  named  after  the  Princess, 
Alexandra  "Xie"  Kitchin.  Mrs.  Kitch- 
in's  father  was  British  Consul  at 
Copenhagen,  and  she  herself  was  a 
personal  friend  of  Princess  Alexandra 
of  Denmark,  who  became  Xie's  god- 
mother. The  Crown  Prince's  career 
at  Oxford  was  interrupted  by  the  out- 
break of  war  between  Denmark  and 
Prussia  over  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
problem.  But  before  Frederick  left 
Oxford,  Dodgson  succeeded — with 
the  Kitchins'  help — in  getting  him 
to  come  and  have  his  photograph 
taken. 

Dodgson  recorded  the  day,  No- 
vember 18,  1863,  in  his  diary: 

A  memorable  day.  Kitchin  called  about  half-past 
11  to  say  he  would  bring  the  Prince  to  be  photo- 
graphed at  half-past  12  (he  had  consented  some 
time  ago  to  sit).  Went  over  to  Badcocks  and  had 
everything  ready  when  they  arrived.  They  staid 
about  half  an  hour,  and  I  took  two  negatives  of  him, 
a  6  x  5  half-length,  and  a  10  x  8  full-length.  In  the 
intervals  he  looked  over  my  photographs  that  are 
moimted  on  cards,  and  he  also  signed  his  name  in 
my  album,  saying  as  he  did  so  that  it  was  the  first 
time  he  had  used  his  new  title.  (He  is  now  Crown- 
Prince,  the  news  of  the  death  of  the  old  king  having 
come  on  Monday.)  He  conversed  pleasantly  and 
sensibly,  and  is  evidently  a  much  brighter  specimen 
of  royalty  than  his  brother-in-law. 

Clearly,  Dodgson  was  still  smarting  about  the  rebuff  he 
received  from  the  Prince  of  Wales  who  refused  to  let  him 
take  his  photograph.  But  to  say  that  Frederick  was  a  "much 
brighter  specimen  of  royalty"  was  probably  tantamount  to 


Dodgson,  [Frederick] ,  Prince  of  Denmark,  1863. 
Albumen  print  of  collodion  negative,  20.7  x  16.0  an. 
University  oflexas  at  Austin,  Harry  Ransom  Center, 
Gei~nsheim  Collection. 


treason!  Of  course,  it  might  also  be  true.  Frederick  looks 
relatively  intelligent  in  his  academic  gown.  In  the  photo- 
graph, he  stands  and  is  taken  full  length.  In  the  other,  he 
is  seated  at  a  desk.  The  Prince  was  very  cooperative.  The 
photographic  process  was  time-consuming  as  the  glass- 
plate  had  to  be  prepared  just  prior  to  the  photograph 
being  taken.  Since  two  photographs  were  taken,  there 
was  an  interval  between  the  two  photographic  exposures. 
Dodgson  gains  another  success  in  getting  the  Prince  to 
sign  his  name  in  the  album;  he  was  just  as  keen  to  get  auto- 
graphs as  he  was  to  get  photographs  of  royalty  (or,  for  that 
matter,  any  celebrity).  The  glass-plate  was  developed  im- 
mediately, but  the  photographic  print  was  made  at 
a  later  date  and  inserted  into  the  album. 
Dodgson  gave  a  copy  of  the  "seated" 
print  to  the  Liddells,  and  a  copy  ap- 
peared in  one  of  their  albums.  (This  is 
after  the  supposed  split  between  Dodg- 
son and  the  Liddell  family.) 


PRINCESS  BEATRICE 

We  know  that  the  Royal  Family  had 
access  to  the  Alice  books.  Dodgson 
sent  a  copy  of  Wonderland  to  Princess 
Beatrice,  Queen  Victoria's  youngest 
daughter,  on  November  22,  1865. 
Dodgson's  diar)'  lists  the  recipients 
of  presentation  copies,  and  Princess 
Beatrice  was  second  only  to  Alice 
Liddell  in  that  list.  Dodgson  received 
the  following  letter  from  Lady  Augusta 
Stanley,  Lady-in-Waiting  to  the  Ro\al 
household,  dated  December  18, 
1865,  in  response  to  his  presentation 
copy  of  Wonderland  sent  to  Princess 
Beatrice: 


The  Deanery,  Westminster 
Dear  Mr.  Dodgson, 

It  seems  in  consequence  of  an  oversight  that 
Sir  Charles  Phipps  did  not  write  to  acknowledge 
the  little  book  of  which  Her  Majesty  was  pleased  to 
sanction  the  presentation  to  the  Princess  Beatrice. 

He  requested  me  to  convey  Her  acknowledge- 
ment to  you.  I  must  add,  that  various  members  of 
the  Household  have  added  it  to  their  nursery  Li- 
braries where  it  is  established  as  a  proven  favourite. 

Yoms  truly, 

Augusta  Stanley'^ 

Dodgson  also  sent  Princess  Beatrice  copies  of  the  for- 
eign language  editions  of  Alice.  The  Windsor  C>astle  Royal 
Archive  contains  a  copy  of  the  German  Alice  (1869)  with 
an  inscription  to  the  Princess  that  reads  in  a  rather  gush- 
ing tone:  "Presented  to  Her  Royal  Highness,  The  Princess 
Beatrice,  by  Her  obedient  Servant,  the  Author."  The  book 
bears  Princess  Beatrice's  bookplate  and  is  bound  in  full 
leather  in  green  morocco  with  one  decorative  and  three 
plain  lines  of  border  roimd  each  board — not  the  usual 
decoration. 


A  WELL  KNOWN  ROYAL  MYTH 

WTiile  we  are  talking  about  the  Royal  Family  and  Queen 
Victoria  in  particular,  mention  must  be  made  of  an  anec- 
dote that  links  Dodgson  to  her.  This  story,  and  its  denial, 
was  recalled  in  1932  by  Thomas  Banks  Strong,  Bishop  of 
Oxford.  Strong,  who  knew  Dodgson  as  well  as  anyone  liv- 
ing at  the  time,  said: 

The  .  .  .  legend,  frequently  repeated,  as  to  which 
I  am  wholly  sceptical,  is  that  some  one  presented 
a  copy  of  Alice  in  Wonderland  to  the  Queen,  who 
asked  to  have  any  future  works  by  the  author  sent 
to  her,  and  that  he  sent  her  a  work  on  the  Theory 
of  Numbers  or  some  such  subject.  I  disbelieve  this 
for  two  reasons.  It  would  have  been  contrary  to 
Dodgson's  whole  attitude  towards  the  Throne  and 
to  his  good  manners  to  put  a  gibe  of  this  sort  upon 
the  Queen.  And  it  was  entirely  contrary  to  his  atti- 
tude towards  his  books.  He  always  refused  to  admit 
to  any  but  specially  privileged  persons  that  he  was 
Lewis  Carroll.''' 

The  story  is  clearly  untrue — Dodgson,  who  indicated 
that  he  had  seen  reports  in  newspapers  about  it,  denied  it 
in  the  second  edition  to  Symbolic  Logic:  Part  1,  Elementary  in 
a  postscript  to  an  advertisement  for  the  other  two  parts  of 
this  projected  book.  He  wrote: 

I  take  this  opportunity  of  giving  what  publicity  I  can 
to  my  contradiction  of  a  silly  story,  which  has  been 
going  the  round  of  the  papers,  about  my  having 
presented  certain  books  to  Her  Majesty  the  Queen. 
It  is  so  constantly  repeated,  and  is  such  absolute 
fiction,  that  I  think  it  worth  while  to  state,  once  for 
all,  that  it  is  utterly  false  in  every  particular:  nothing 
even  resembling  it  has  ever  occurred."' 

So  far,  nobody  has  been  able  to  find  the  offending 
rumor  printed  in  any  newspaper  of  the  time.  The  anec- 
dote had  probably  existed  for  many  years — Alice  came  out 
in  late  1865  and  this  was  followed  by  An  Elementary  Treatise 
on  Determinants  in  1867.  Why  did  Dodgson  wait  almost 
thirty  years  before  going  into  print  to  deny  the  story? 

For  one  with  great  respect  for  the  Queen,  it  is  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  to  find  him  pretending  in  a  letter  to  the 
thirteen-year-old  Margaret  Cunnynghame  that  he  refused 
to  supply  the  Queen  with  a  photograph  of  himself.  The 
letter,  dated  April  7,  1868,  includes  this  paragraph: 

But  oh,  Maggie,  how  can  you  ask  for  a  better  one 
of  me  than  the  one  I  sent!  It  is  one  of  the  best  ever 
done!  Such  grace,  such  dignity,  such  benevolence, 

such as  a  great  secret  (please  don't  repeat 

it)  the  Queen  sent  to  ask  for  a  copy  of  it,  but  as  it  is 
against  my  rule  to  give  in  such  a  case,  [I  was  obliged 
to  answer:]  "Mr.  Dodgson  presents  his  compli- 
ments to  Her  Majesty,  and  regrets  to  say  that  his 
rule  is  never  to  give  his  photograph  except  to  young 
ladies."  I  am  told  she  was  annoyed  about  it,  and 
said,  "I'm  not  so  old  as  all  that  comes  to,"  and  one 
doesn't  like  to  annoy  Queens,  but  really  I  couldn't 
help  it,  you  know.'" 


This  is,  of  course,  exactly  how  stories  and  rumors 
begin.  Another  instance  of  pretence  occurred  when  he 
fabricated  a  letter  from  Queen  Victoria  to  himself  and 
gave  it  to  the  Drury  sisters,  to  impress  them  that  the  Queen 
had  invited  him  to  Buckingham  Palace  to  attend  a  garden- 
party:  "I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  come  to  our  Garden  Party 
on  Friday  afternoon."'*^ 

Morton  Cohen,  in  his  introduction  to  Interviews  and 
Recollections,  writes:  "With  effort,  a  claim  could  even  be 
made  of  a  distant  relationship  to  Queen  Victoria.  It  [the 
Dodgson  family]  was  an  upper-crust  family,  steeped  in 
tradition,  religious,  devoted  to  serving  God,  country,  and 
mankind."'-'  Cohen  does  not  expand  on  this  genealogical 
link  with  the  Royal  Family.  It  appears  that  Dodgson  was 
descended  from  Matilda  de  Hoghton,  the  illegitimate 
daughter  of  William  the  Conqueror.-^" 

However,  the  link  between  Alice  Liddell  and  the  pres- 
ent Queen,  and  therefore  back  to  Queen  Victoria,  is  much 
clearer.  In  Anne  Clark's  book  The  Real  Alice,'^^  that  link  is 
made  apparent  with  a  family  tree  showing  the  Liddells 
descended  from  the  family  of  Lyon,  and  from  this  family 
comes  the  Bowes-Lyon  branch  that  produced  Elizabeth 
Angela  Marguerite  Bowes-Lyon,  the  late  Queen  Mother. 

PRINCE  LEOPOLD 

One  lasting  relationship  between  Dodgson  and  the  Royals 
came  with  Queen  Victoria's  youngest  son.  Prince  Leopold. 
This  began  when  Leopold  was  a  teenager,  and  continued 
after  his  early  death  with  his  wife  and  children. 

The  Prince  was,  by  all  accounts,  strong-willed  and 
intelligent  with  a  great  love  of  life.  He  was  also  a  hemophil- 
iac and  suffered  from  epilepsy.  As  such,  his  youth  was  very 
restricted — with  few  outside  influences — and  the  Queen 
was  very  protective  towards  him.  He  had  a  personal  tutor 
named  Mr.  Shuldham,  from  Eton,  who  left  to  marry  in 
1866.  His  replacement  was  Robinson  Duckworth,  of  river- 
trip  fame,  recommended  by  Dean  Stanley  of  Westminster 
and  Dean  Liddell.  Duckworth  found  a  very  introverted 
thirteen-year-old  who  was  emotionally  disturbed,  immobile 
and  depressed.  He  set  about  reconstructing  the  Prince's 
life,  removing  the  claustrophobic  atmosphere  that  he  had 
suffered  up  until  then.  To  broaden  the  Prince's  mind, 
Duckworth  suggested  that  he  collect  autographs  and 
signed  letters,  very  much  in  fashion  at  the  time.  He  hoped 
that  the  Prince  would  end  up  corresponding  and  convers- 
ing with  some  of  the  important  people  of  his  day. 

Gradually,  the  collection  began  to  grow  with  con- 
tributions from  Kingsley,  Tennyson,  Disraeli,  Landseer, 
Longfellow,  and  many  others.  Most  of  the  letters  began 
"My  dear  Duckworth"  so  it  was  clear  that  he  was  the  driv- 
ing force  behind  the  collection.  Duckworth  also  used 
his  Oxford  connections  to  add  to  the  autographs.  One 
letter  pasted  into  Prince  Leopold's  album  simply  says: 
"Believe  me,  at  1.30  a.m.,  sleepily  but  sincerely  yours,  C. 
L.  Dodgson. "-^^  Duckworth  must  have  told  Dodgson  about 
the  Prince's  restricted  life  with  the  result  that  in  November 
1867  Dodgson  sent  Leopold  a  bundle  of  autograph  let- 
ters for  his  collection.  These  letters  were  sent  to  Dodgson 
by  such  people  as  George  MacDonald,  Charlotte  Yonge, 


:M 


Henry  Liddon,  Arthur  Hughes,  Hohnan  Hunt,  and  John 
Tenniel.^' 

In  July  1867,  Duckworth,  who  had  gained  the  trust 
of  the  Queen,  was  appointed  the  Prince's  Governor. 
The  Queen,  in  a  letter  to  her  eldest  daughter,  described 
Duckworth  as:  "a  really  most  talented  and  charming  per- 
son... The  only  objection  I  have  to  him  is  that  he  is  a 
clergyman.  However,  he  is  enlightened  and  so  free  from 
the  usual  prejudices  of  his  profession  that  I  feel  I  must 
get  over  my  dislike  to  that.  Mr.  Duckworth  is  an  excel- 
lent preacher  and  good-looking  besides."-^ 
Make  of  that  what  you  will!  To  replace 
Duckworth  as  tutor,  Robert  Hawthorn 
Collins  was  appointed  and  would  follow 
him  to  Oxford  and  remain  a  member  of 
the  Prince's  household  for  many  years. 
Duckworth  left  the  Royal  household  in 
1870. 

Prince  Leopold  had  a  burning 
ambition  to  attend  a  university,  possibly 
influenced  by  Duckworth.  Although  the 
Queen  was  not  entirely  in  favor  of  the 
idea,  she  finally  relented,  but  set  strin- 
gent rules  about  his  attendance  being 
for  study  alone,  and  not  for  general 
amusement.  At  the  age  of  nineteen,  on 
November  27,  1872,  Prince  Leopold 
matriculated  at  Oxford  in  the  Deanery 
at  Christ  Church.  Bells  were  rung  in 
the  churches  in  Oxford  and  also  at 
Christ  Church  to  celebrate  the  occa- 
sion. Dr.  Acland,  his  medical  adviser, 
and  Dean  Liddell  became  responsible 
for  the  Prince.  His  own  tutor,  Collins, 
was  the  link  between  the  Prince  and  the 
Queen.  Acland  foimd  a  house  in  St.  Giles, 
Wykeham  House,  to  be  the  Prince's  residence.  After  the 
matriculation  ceremony,  Acland  and  Liddell  dined  with 
the  Prince  at  Wykeham  House,  no  doubt  to  discuss  the 
options  for  study.  Leopold  did  not  select  a  degree  course, 
but  chose  a  range  of  lectures  to  attend  including  art  with 
John  Ruskin  and  chemistry  with  Dodgson's  friend  and  col- 
league, Augustus  Vernon  Harcourt.^'' 

The  following  year,  Dodgson  was  seeking  a  photo- 
graphic sitting  from  this  latest  member  of  the  Royal  Family 
to  attend  Oxford  University.  On  May  26,  1875,  Dodgson 
recorded  his  visit  to  Wykeham  House: 

I  foiuid  myself  treated  as  senior  guest,  and  had  to 
sit  next  to  the  young  host,  who  was  particularly  un- 
assuming and  genial  in  manner:  I  do  not  wonder  at 
his  being  so  universal  a  favoinite.  After  limch,  we 
adjourned  to  a  large  tent  in  the  garden,  where  cof- 
fee and  cigars  were  provided.  I  showed  the  Prince 
a  few  photographs  I  had  taken  with  me,  and  after 
arranging  for  a  sitting  on  Wednesday  next,  took  my 
leave. 

On  June  2,  1875,  he  added: 

The  Prince  came  alone  about  1  IK',  and  was  joined 
afterwards  by  Collins.  He  staid  till  nearly  1,  and  I 


Dodgson,  [Prince  Leopold,  standing],  1875. 
Albumen  print  of  collodion  negative,  17.8  x  12.7  cm. 
University  of  Texas  at  Austin,  Hany  Ransom  Center, 
Gemsheim  Collection. 


took  two  photographs  of  him,  but  neither  was  quite 
free  from  moving.  He  looked  over  a  number  of 
photographs,  and  chose  some  for  me  to  give  him. 

One  of  these  photographs  shows  Leopold  standing, 
the  other  sitting.  They  were  taken  in  Dodgson's  Tom  Quad 
rooftop  studio  above  his  rooms  at  Christ  Church.  Leopold 
signed  his  name  in  one  of  Dodgson's  albums.-'' Although  a 
little  blurred  by  the  Prince's  slight  movement,  the  photo- 
graphs show  a  self-possessed  and  confident  young  man,  at 
ease  as  an  undergraduate. 

PRINCESS  ALICE'S  ADVENTURES 
IN  WONDERLAND 

Expressly  against  the  Queen's 
instructions,  Leopold  began  to 
enjoy  the  social  life  that  Oxford 
had  to  offer.  This  centered 
around  the  Deanery  at  Christ 
Church,  with  Mrs.  Liddell  promi- 
nent in  making  her  home  a  place 
of  entertainment  fit  for  a  Prince. 
Leopold  became  acquainted  with 
the  Liddell  household  and  the 
Liddell  daughters:  in  particular, 
Lorina,  Alice,  and  Edith,  now 
aged  25,  22,  and  20  years  respec- 
tively. He  had  undergraduate 
friends  too;  Aubrey  Harcourt, 
later  to  become  engaged  to  Edith 
Liddell,  was  one  of  them.  In  the 
spring  of  1873  Leopold  confided 
to  his  closest  friends  that  he  was 
in  love.  He  talked  of  marriage. 
She  was  an  Oxford  girl  but  her 
name  does  not  appear  in  the 
records  kept  by  the  Royal  house- 
hold. It  is  likely  that  the  Queen  found  out,  and  "was  not 
amused."^" 

W'e  have  a  clue  to  the  identity  of  this  maid  in  Dodgson's 
squib  on  the  architectural  changes  that  Dean  Liddell  had 
set  in  motion  at  Christ  Church  entitled  The  Vision  of  the 
Three  T's,  a  dramatic  parody  of  Isaak  Walton's  Compleat 
Angler  {\^b2>) .  In  this,  Dodgson  mocks  Mrs.  Liddell,  calling 
her  a  "King-fisher,"  no  doubt  satirizing  the  frequent  visits 
of  the  Prince  to  the  Deanery  and  her  wish  to  make  him  a 
royal  son-in-law!  The  Piscator  states: 

I  will  say  somewhat  of  the  Nobler  kinds,  and  chiefly 
of  the  Gold-fish,  which  is  a  species  highly  thought 
of,  and  much  sought  after  in  these  parts,  not  only 
by  men,  but  by  divers  birds,  as  for  example  the 
King-fishers.-*^ 

An  undergraduate  adds  to  the  speculation.  John 
Howe  Jenkins  wrote  a  sctirrilous  piece  about  life  at  Oxford 
at  the  time,  thinlv  disguising  the  gossip  and  the  rumor  in 
his  dramatic  pamphlet  called  Cakeless.  Although  it  was 
published  anonymously,  the  author's  name  was  discov- 
ered, and  Jenkins  was  sent  down.  He  dared  to  suggest  that 
the  Dean  and  Mrs.  Liddell,  named  Apollo  and  Diana  in 


the  verse  play,  had  been  disappointed  with  the  marriage  of 
their  eldest  daughter,  Lorina,  to  William  Baillie  Skene,  in 
February  1874,  and  that  they  were  being  more  careful  with 
their  remaining  daughters.  He  went  on  to  suggest  that  the 
potential  bridegrooms  were  Yerbua  (Aubrey  Harcourt,  a 
friend  of  the  Prince),  Rivulus  (Lord  Brooke,  another  close 
friend  of  the  Prince),  and  Regius  (obviously  Leopold).  He 
muddled  the  possible  brides,  probably  because  he  didn't 
know  the  Liddell  daughters  well  enough,  but  the  attack  on 
Mrs.  Liddell  was  entirely  transparent. 

The  name  of  Leopold's  love,  by  tradition  rather  than 
record,  was  Alice  Liddell.  Not  coming  into  contact  with 
many  young  ladies  at  Oxford,  he  was  certain  to  find  the 
Liddell  sisters  an  attraction,  and  Alice — well  educated, 
artistic,  musical,  and  good-looking — especially  fetching. 
Edith  Liddell  may  have  already  formed  an  attachment  to 
Aubrey  Harcourt  although  they  did  not  announce  their 
engagement  until  1876,  two  years  later.  Rhoda  was  prob- 
ably too  young  to  be  considered  at  this  point,  being  just 
fifteen  and  not  as  attractive  as  her  older  sisters.  But  it  was 
not  to  be;  the  romance  between  Alice  Liddell  and  Prince 
Leopold  either  foundered  or  was  blocked.  We  will  never 
know  for  certain  what  happened.  In  May  1873,  the  Queen 
sent  for  Leopold,  and  he  traveled  to  Balmoral.  He  did 
not  see  the  Liddells  again  until  December  of  that  year  (a 
possible  "cooling  off  period),  and  from  then  on  talk  of 
marriage  was  over. 

There  are  other  clues  to  a  possible  romantic  link  be- 
tween Alice  and  Leopold.  When  Alice  married  Reginald 
Hargreaves  at  Westminster  Abbey  in  September  1880, 
she  wore  a  pearl  horseshoe  brooch  on  her  wedding  dress 
given  to  her  by  Prince  Leopold  as  a  wedding  gift.  However, 
the  Prince  did  not  attend  the  wedding. 

PRINCESS  LOUISE 

Dodgson  made  further  contact  with  Prince  Leopold  in 
1876  when  he  wished  to  present  a  copy  of  The  Hunting 
of  the  Snark  to  Princess  Louise,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales.  His  letter,  dated  January  31, 
explains  his  problem. 

I  am  hoping  to  bring  out  a  new  child's  book  this 
Easter,  and  that  I  wish  to  be  allowed  the  honour  of 
presenting  a  copy  to  the  Princess  of  Wales'  eldest 
daughter.  I  have  asked  one  or  two  friends,  who  I 
thought  would  be  able  to  obtain  this  permission, 
but  they  assure  me  that  the  request,  and  the  gift 
itself,  must  go  through  the  hands  of  a  Secretary,  or 
some  other  official.  I  should  feel  that  all  the  poetry 
of  such  a  gift,  as  sent  by  an  author  to  a  child,  would 
evaporate  in  such  a  process  of  transmission.  I  could 


as  easily  imagine  Othello's  defence,  "Most  potent, 
grave,  and  reverend  signiors,"  read  out  by  the  Clerk 
of  the  Court.  If  your  Royal  Highness  could  either 
present  the  book,  for  me,  to  the  little  Princess 
herself;  or  get  permission  for  me  to  send  it  direct, 
I  should  esteem  such  an  honour  highly:  but  if  the 
only  available  process  is  that  the  book  should  pass 
through  the  hands  of  a  Secretary,  I  had  rather  not 
send  it  at  all.''-' 

The  Prince  replied  promising  Dodgson  to  transmit 
the  request  to  his  sister-in-law,  the  Princess  of  Wales,  on 
her  return  from  Denmark.  "The  amount  of  etiquette  with 
which  we  are  surrounded  is  indeed  very  tiresome,"  the 
Prince  added,  "(though,  at  times,  useful),  but  it  is  not  in 
my  power  to  diminish  it."^"  It  is  not  known  whether  Dodg- 
son ever  sent  the  book  to  Princess  Louise  Victoria  Alexan- 
dra Dagmar,  eldest  daughter  of  the  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Wales. 

Prince  Leopold  was  created  Duke  of  Albany  in  1881 
and  was  married  to  Princess  Helene  Frederica  Augusta 
Waldeck-Pyrmont  in  April  1882.  Their  first  child  was  born 
in  February  1883.  Alice  Liddell  wrote  to  congratulate  the 
Prince,  at  the  same  time  inviting  him  to  be  godfather  to 
her  second  son  who  had  been  born  in  January  that  year. 
Leopold  wrote  from  Windsor: 

Many  thanks  for  your  very  kind  letter  of  good 
wishes  on  the  birth  of  our  little  girl.  The  event  is, 
as  you  can  imagine,  a  source  oi  great  pleasure  to  us. 
It  is  very  good  of  you  asking  me  to  be  godfather  to 
your  boy,  and  I  shall  have  great  pleasure  in  being 
so.  Please  let  me  know  what  his  names  are  to  be.... 
Our  child  will  probably  be  christened  on  Easter 
Monday,  we  mean  to  call  her  Alice. ^' 

Alice  and  Reginald  Hargreaves  named  their  second 
son  Leopold  Reginald,  but  he  was  always  known  in  the 
family  as  Rex.  The  King-fisher  wins  the  day! 

Within  a  year,  Leopold  was  dead  of  a  brain  hemor- 
rhage following  convulsions  after  a  fall.  A  few  months 
later,  his  wife  the  Duchess  of  Albany  gave  birth  to  a  son, 
named  Charles  Edward. 

Dodgson 's  friendship  with  Prince  Leopold's  widow 
and  her  two  children.  Princess  Alice  and  Prince  Charles, 
is  discussed  in  the  second  part  of  this  paper,  which  will 
appear  in  the  next  issue  of  this  magazine. 

Based  on  a  talk  given  to  the  Leiuis  Carroll  Society  (UK)  on  April 
28,  2000.  Extracts  from  Dodgson 's  diaries  and  letters  are  the  copy- 
right of  the  Trustees  of  the  C.  L.  Dodgson  Estate,  ivho  have  kindly 
given  permission  for  them  to  be  reproduced  in  this  article. 


'  Lewis  (Carroll,  "The  Garden  of  Live  Flow- 
ers" in  Through  the  Looking-  Glass,  And  Wfiat 
Alice  Found  There  (London:  Macmillan, 
1872),  36. 

^  Lewis  Carroll,  "'Alice'  on  the  Stage,"  The 
Theatre,  n.s.,  9  (April  1887):  182. 

•*  Dodgson,  May  17,  \H55,  Edward  Wake-ling, 
ed.,  iMvis  CanoH's  Diaries:  The  Private  Jour- 
naLs  of  Charles  I.utwidge  Dodgson,  7 


vols,  to  date  (Luton  8c  (Clifford,  England: 
The  Lewis  Carroll  Society,  1993-).  Unless 
otherwise  noted,  all  diary  entries  are  from 
this  series.  Further  reference  will  only  be 
made  for  dates  that  are  not  given  in  the 
main  body  of  this  paper.  For  unpublished 
entries,  the  author  relies  on  his  copies  of 
the  originals  housed  in  the  British  Library. 
Henry  Lewis  Thompson,  Memoir  of  Henry 
George  Liddell,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Christ  Church, 


Oxford  (London:  John  Murray,  1899),  177. 
Dodgson,  December  12,  1860,  quoted  in 
Stuart  Dodgson  Collingwood,  The  Life  and 
Letters  of  Lewis  Cajroll  (London:  T.  Fisher 
Unwin,  1898),  85-86.  Collingwood  quotes 
a  portion  of  the  now  missing  diaries. 
Dodgson  to  his  siblings,  [December  18, 
1860],  Morton  Cohen,  with  the  assistance 
of  Roger  Lancelyn  Green,  The  Letters  of 


8 


iMuis  Cairoll  (New  York:  Oxford  University 
Press,  1979),  46. 

Mavis  Batey,  Alice's  Adventures  in  Oxford 
(London:  Pitkin  Pictorials,  1980),  22-23, 
26-27. 

Dodgson,  March  9,  186.^,  Diaries,]7\. 
Ibid.,  March  10,  1863,  172-73. 
t^arroll,  "The  Garden  of  Live  Flowers"  in 
Looking-Glass,  45. 

Ibid.,  'Humpty  Dumpt)-,"  131-132. 
Batey,  Alice's  Adventures  in  Oxford,  22.  The 
poster  advertising  "Talking  Fish!!!"  describ- 
ed the  event  as  a  "Wondrous  Phenomena." 
Mavis  Batey,  The  Adventures  of  Alice:  The 
Stoi-y  Behind  the  Stories  Leiuis  Carroll  Told 
(London:  Macmillan,  1991). 
Lady  Augustu.s  Stanley  to  Dodgson,  De- 
cember 18,  1865,  Dodgson  Family  Collec- 
tion. Published  here  for  the  first  time. 
Thomas  Banks  Strong,  "Mr.  Dodgson: 
Lewis  Carroll  at  Oxford,"  Times  (London), 
Januarv^  27,  1932,  1 1-12.  Also  collected  in 
Morton  Cohen,  Lewis  Carroll:  Interviews  and 
lierollections  (Iowa  City:  University  of  Iowa 
Pres.s,  1989),  38. 


"'  Lewis  Carroll,  Symbolic  Logic:  Part  /,  Elemen- 
tary, 2nd  ed.  (London:  Macmillan,  1896), 
vii.  The  first  edition  was  published  earlier 
in  the  same  year. 

''  Dodgson  to  Margaret  (Aumynghame,  April 
7,  1868,  Cohen,  Letters,  115-16. 

'^  Dodgson  [as  "Victoria  R."]  to  the  Druiy 
sisters,  June  22,  n.y..  Private  Collection.  For 
a  facsimile  of  this  letter,  see  Cohen,  Letters, 
134-36  n.  2  and  135. 

'^  Cohen,  Interviews  and  Fiecollections,  p.  xvii. 

-"  As  it  happens,  I  am  descended  from  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror's  half-brother,  made 
Bishop  Wakeling  of  Winchester  in  1070. 
So,  I'm  sure  the  link  is,  to  say  the  least, 
very  distant  and  very  tenuous. 

'-'  Anne  Clark,  The  Real  Alice  (London:  Mi- 
chael Joseph,  1981). 

'^'^  Dodgson  to  Robinson  Duckworth,  n.d.,  MS 
Autogr.b.3,  f.l04,  Bodleian  Library,  Ox- 
ford. 

^■"^  Tenniel  to  Dodgson,  March  8,  1865, 

Bodleain  Library.  Also  in  Edward  Wakeling 
and  Morton  Cohen,  Leivis  Carroll  and  His 


Illustrators  (New  York:  Cornell  University 
Press,  2003),  12-14.  In  the  letter,  Tenniel 
di.scu.ssed  the  illustrations  in  Wonderland. 

'^'^  Charlotte  Zeepvat,  Prince  Leopold,  The 
Untold  Sloiy  ofQiieen  Victoria's  Youngest  Son 
(Stroud  [England]:  Sutton,  1998),  56-57. 

-■'  Ibid.,  82-83. 

-*'  Dodgson,  Photographic  Album  A(IIl), 
Gernsheim  Collection,  Harry  Ransom 
Humanities  Research  Center,  University'  of 
Texas  at  Austin. 

^'  Zeepvat,  Prince  Leofmld,  90. 

^^  [Dodgson],  The  Vision  of  the  Three  T's 
(Oxford:  James  Parker,  1873),  9-10.  Also 
reprinted  in  Edward  Wakeling,  ed.,  The 
Oxford  Pamphlets,  Leaflets,  and  Circulars  of 
Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson,  The  Pamphlets  of 
Lewis  Carroll  (Charlottesville:  University 
of  Virginia,  1993),  1:85. 

^^  Dodgson  to  Prince  Leopold,  January'  31, 
1876,  Cohen,  L^«m,  241. 

.so  pi-jnce  Leopold  to  Dodgson,  February  2, 
1876,  Cohen,  Letters,  241  n.  2. 

■'^'  Anne  Clark,  The  Real  Alice,  193. 


HIGH  Society  Days  in  New  York 

August  A.  Imholtz,Jr 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  BRYANT  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 

On  Friday  morning,  October  24,  2003  a  small  band  of 
LCSNA  officers  and  members  assembled  at  the  Bryant  Li- 
brary, located  on  — quite  appropriately — Paper  IVIill  Road 
in  Roslyn,  New  York.  We  had  come  to  the  public  library, 
the  oldest  on  Long  Island  in  continuous  use,  in  order  to 
make  a  presentation  to  the  Children's  Room  in  honor  of 
Stan  Marx,  foimder  of  the  LCSNA  and  a  longtime  sup- 
porter. [An  LCSNA  meeting  was  held  here  at  the  Bryant  in 
October,  1980.— Ed.] 

At  about  eleven  o'clock,  Ms.  Elizabeth  McCloat,  one 
of  the  librarians,  welcomed  LCSNA  President  Alan  Tan- 
nenbaum,  Mrs.  Diana  Marx  (Stan's  widow),  Janet  Jurist, 
Edward  Guiliano,  David  and  Mary  Schaefer,  Edward  Wake- 
ling, and  me,  along  with  several  of  Stan's  friends  from 
the  Long  Lsland  Book  Club,  of  which  he  was  the  guiding 
spirit. 

After  coffee  and  refreshments  and  some  words  of 
thanks  from  Ms.  McCloat,  President  Tannenbaum  spoke 
briefly  about  what  Stan  had  meant  to  LCSNA  and  what 
he  must  have  meant  to  the  library  and  to  the  community 
of  Roslyn.  Edward  Guiliano,  who  had  known  Stan  in  his 
Carrollian  capacity  longer  than  anyone  in  the  loom, 
spoke  with  great  affection  of  his  former  friend  and  col- 
league— not  an  academic  colleague  but  truly  a  colleague 
as  an  anima  naturaliter  philobiblion — and  how  Stan  scarcely 
could  have  realized  back  in  Princeton  in  1974,  when  the 
LCSNA  first  took  shape,  where  things — including  today's 
donation  to  the  library — would  lead.  Janet  Jurist  recalled 


her  long  association  with  Stan,  through  the  LCSNA  but 
first  and  foremost  through  the  book  club  at  the  Bryant 
Library.  David  Schaefer  shared  a  few  memories  of  Stan, 
including  an  early  visit  to  Arthur  Houghton  to  seek  advice 
on  the  question  of  whether  the  American  Carroll  society 
should  be  independent  of  its  British  counterpart.  Finally, 
several  of  Stan's  acquaintances  from  the  town  of  Roslyn 
and  I  offered  our  observations.  Alan  thanked  Mary  Schae- 
fer for  suggesting  that  a  memorial  of  books  be  made  in 
Stan's  honor  to  the  library.  We  all  then  trooped  down  to 
the  Children's  Room  where  the  gift,  a  more-than-two-foot 
high  statue  of  the  White  Rabbit,  was  placed  atop  a  book- 
case with  a  selection  of  the  publications  of  the  LCSNA 
and  a  set  oi  Alice  hook%,  all  bearing  a  bookplate  from  the 
LCSNA  commemorating  Stan  Marx,  placed  at  its  feet.  We 
paused  for  a  few  photographs  and  then  headed  back  to 
Manhattan  for  the  next  activity  of  the  day. 

THE  MAXINE  SCHAEFER  MEMORIAL  READING 

In  conjunction  with  the  Fall  2003  meeting,  the  Maxine 
Schaefer  Memorial  Outreach  Reading  took  place  on  a 
cool  Friday  afternoon,  October  24,  at  the  Dalton  School 
on  Manhattan's  Upper  East  Side.  The  school,  first  called 
the  Children's  University  School,  was  foimded  by  progres- 
sive educator  Helen  Parkhurst  in  1919.  She  originally  de- 
veloped her  plan  for  a  new  kind  of  educational  experience 
at  a  high  school  in  Dalton,  Massachusetts,'  from  which 
the  now  famous  school  in  New  York  City  took  its  name. 
In  1919  she  founded  her  new  school  in  New  York  and,  a 


Above,  David  Schaejer,  August  Imholz,  and  Edward 
Wakeling  examine  the  scrapbook. 

Center,  the  gift  to  the  children 's  room. 

(All  photos  by  Alan  Tannenbaum) 


m  ■mWM'iMm 

■  Hf       WSmfSmmm    \mSmmm 


Cindy  Walter,  Dayna  McCausland,  and  Edward  Wakeling  in 
front  of  the  Dalton  School. 


few  years  later,  expressed  her  vision  of  what  that  school 
embodied:  "Let  us  think  of  a  school  as  a  social  laboratory 
where  pupils  themselves  are  the  experimenters,  not  the 
victims  of  an  intricate  and  crystallized  system...  Let  us 
think  of  it  as  a  place  where  community  conditions  prevail 
as  they  prevail  in  life  itself."-  The  school  is  located  today  at 
108  East  89th  Street. 

At  two  thirty  on  that  cool  Friday  afternoon,  several 
classes  of  fourth  grade  boys  and  girls  assembled  in  the 
library  on  the  tenth  floor  of  the  Dalton  School — buildings, 
even  schools,  tend  to  go  straight  up  in  Manhattan.  The 
librarian  of  the  middle  school,  Ms.  Roxanne  Feldman, 
introduced  Alan  Tannenbaum,  who  after  a  few  welcoming 
remarks  and  expressions  of  thanks  to  Ms.  Feldman,  intro- 
duced Ellie  Schaefer-Salins.  Ellie  told  the  children  about 
the  role  of  her  mother,  Maxine  Schaefer,  in  the  founding 
of  the  Society,  how  she  shepherded  it  through  the  first 
twenty  years  of  its  existence  as  the  Society's  secretary,  and 
how  she  liked  few  things  more  than  introducing  children, 
like  those  in  the  audience,  to  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice's  Adven- 
tures in  Wonderland. 

Patt  Griffin-Miller  and  Andrew  Sellon  next  gave  a  spir- 
ited dramatic  reading  of  the  "Mad  Tea-Party"  episode  in 
chapter  seven  of  the  first  Alice  book.  The  children,  moved 
by  the  reading  and  dramatic  skills  of  our  two  actors,  chuck- 
led at  the  appropriate  moments.  Following  the  perfor- 
mance, Andrew  began  a  discussion  with  the  fourth  graders 
by  asking  how  many  had  read  the  book  (a  lot  had)  and 
how  many  had  seen  the  Disney  film  (even  more).  He  then 
asked  them  how  they  thought  Lewis  Carroll  had  come  to 
write  his  most  famous  book.  One  child  said  he  must  have 
had  a  dream,  which  is  not  all  that  bad  an  answer.  Andrew 
and  Patt  explained  the  actual  origin  of  the  story,  includ- 
ing its  basis  on  a  real  child  named  Alice  and  her  sisters. 
This  biographical  excursus  opened  a  rapid  descent  into 
a  rabbit  hole  of  questions  about  Carroll,  Alice,  and  her 
10 


sisters — especially  when  they  died:  Since  the  class  had  re- 
cently studied  E.  B.  Wliite's  fiction  and  life,  they  were  keen 
on  a  pre-postmodern  approach  to  a  literary  text.  Other 
questions  included  the  following:  Why  was  the  Dormouse 
so  tired?  (too  much  sugar  in  the  tea  was  one  answer); 
What  is  a  Hatter  and  why  is  he  mad?  (Edward  Wakeling  ex- 
plained that  the  mercury  used  in  the  making  of  hats  could 
cause  madness);  Where  is  Wonderland?  (one  child  said  in 
their  imagination);  and  finally,  there  was  much  discussion 
about  one's  favorite  characters  in  the  story.  Ms.  Feldman 
then  brought  up  Carroll's  "The  Story  of  the  Three  Cats","* 
which  Andrew  read  as  a  kind  of  encore.  At  the  conclusion 
of  our  program,  each  child  received  a  copy  of  the  Books 
of  Wonder  edition  of  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland  "with 
the  bookplate  commemorating  the  Maxine  Schaefer  Chil- 
dren's Outreach  Fund.  LCSNA  members  present  for  the 
afternoon's  events  included  Alan  Tannenbaum,  David  and 
Mary  Schaefer,  Ellie  Schaefer-Salins,  Janet  Jurist,  Cindy 
Watter,  Edward  Wakeling,  Dayna  McCausland,  and  me 
and  my  wife,  Clare  Imholtz. 

GENERAL  MEETING 

At  ten  forty-five  the  following  morning,  members  and 
guests  assembled  in  the  original  Berol  Room  of  New  York 
University's  Fales  Library,  which,  of  course,  is  named  for 
Lewis  Carroll  collector  and  university  benefactor  Alfred  C. 
Berol  (who  made  his  fortune  manufacturing  pencils),  to 
examine  a  fabulous  potpourri  of  books,  ephemera,  objets 
d'art,  and  the  like,  which  would  be  auctioned  later  in  the 
day  for  the  benefit  of  the  LCSNA.  Then  at  eleven  forty-five 
we  all  strolled  through  Greenwich  Village  a  few  blocks  to 
Ennio  &  Michael's  on  LaGiiardia  Place  where  we  partook 
of  a  delightful  lunch  and  the  sparkling  conversations  that 
always  make  an  LCSNA  meeting  such  an  enjoyable  social 
occasion.  By  one  thirty  we  were  back  in  the  Fales,  which 
for  those  of  you  who  have  never  visited  this  remarkable 


Above,  Joel  Birenbaum  presides  over  the  auction. 
Center,  Andreiif  Sellon. 


library,  is  on  the  third  floor  of  New  York  University's  Elmer 
Holmes  Bobst  Library  at  70  Washington  Square  South  in 
New  York's  Greenwich  Village. 

President  Alan  Tannenbaum,  after  welcoming  the 
audience,  thanked  Marvin  Taylor,  Director  of  the  Fales 
Library  and  Special  Collections,  for  hosting  our  meeting 
and  giving  us  permission  in  advance  to  tarry  well  past  the 
traditional  closing  hours,  should  it  be  necessary.  Marvin 
then  welcomed  us  for  at  least  the  third  time  to  NYU  (the 
Society  has  met  here  seven  previous  times)  and  expressed 
the  library's  gratitude  for  the  donation  to  the  Fales  of  the 
LCSNA  Archives.  I,  being  the  Archives  Coordinator,  next 
said  a  few  words  about  them.  I  read  the  painfully  dn'  defi- 
nition of  the  word  "archives"  from  Sir  Hilary  Jenkinson's 
bible  of  archival  library  science,  A  Manual  of  Archive  Admin- 
istration^— a  text  far  drier  than  even  the  post-caucus  race 
account  of  Edwin  and  Morcar — and  assured  the  LCSNA 
members  that  their  archives,  now  safely  preserved  at  NYU, 
are  an  exciting  record  of  the  first  twenty-nine  years  of  a 
vibrant,  living  literary  society. 

Before  returning  to  my  chair,  I  had  the  sad  duty  of 
announcing  that  Clark  Smith,  husband  of  Genevieve  B. 
Smith,  had  passed  away  this  year  on  the  fourth  day  of 
June.  Clark,  a  San  Francisco  native  and  a  newspaper  man 
throughout  his  life,  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  our  meetings. 
He  and  his  journalistic  animadversions  on  our  follies  will 
be  missed  by  all  who  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  him. 

Edward  Wakeling,  coeditor  with  Morton  N.  Cohen  of 
the  newly  released  collection  of  letters  entitled  Lewis  Car- 
roll and  His  Illustrators,''  delivered  the  afternoon's  first  lec- 
ture, which  he  titled  "Lewis  Carroll's  Artistic  Mind's  Eye." 
Edward  began  by  projecting  a  cavalcade  of  pictures  by  the 
illustrators  of  Dodgson's  books:  John  Tenniel,  Henry  Holi- 
day, Arthur  Frost,  Harry  Furniss,  and  Gertrude  Thomson. 
Fine  as  their  illustrations  are  (some  would  say  they  are 
"classic")  the  question  arises  of  "who  should  claim  praise 


for  such  magnificent  illustrative  ideas — the  artist  or  the 
author?"  Dodgson,  Edward  argued,  had  a  substantial  hand 
in  both  the  subjects  and  themes  for  the  illustrations.  The 
evidence  for  such  a  claim  derives  from  three  sources:  the 
diaries,  the  illustration  plans  Dodgson  drew  up  for  some  of 
his  books  (particularly  those  for  the  A/?V^ books),  and  the 
letters  printed  in  the  newly  published  collection.  These 
letters  to  his  illustrators  reveal  that  "in  virtually  all  cases, 
Dodgson  had  in  his  mind's  eye  exactly  what  was  required 
to  illustrate  his  work." 

Dodgson  had,  however,  initially  entertained  the  pos- 
sibility of  illustrating  Wonderland  h'lmselL  Edward  cited  the 
well-known  verdict  of  John  Ruskin  on  Dodgson's  artistic 
talents''  and  added  the  evidence  of  the  diaiy  entry  of  July 
16,  1863,  recounting  Carroll's  visit  to  Thomas  Combe 
with  his  half-length  drawing  of  Alice  drawn  on  wood  to 
be  engraved.  The  arms  were  "condemned"  and  Dodgson 
was  told  he  ^'must  draw  from  the  life."^  Still  undeterred,  he 
called  on  Mr.Jewitt  of  Camden  Town  who  gave  him  some 
further  hints  and  seemed  to  be  willing  to  cut  the  blocks 
Dodgson  had  drawn.  Over  the  next  few  months  Dodgson 
associated  with  the  most  famous  British  artists  of  his  day, 
Arthur  Hughes  and  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti,  inter  alia. 
WTiether  on  the  basis  of  the  opinions  of  two  such  "experts" 
as  Ruskin  and  Combe,  or  from  conversation  with  his  artist 
friends,  Dodgson  in  the  end  decided  to  hire  a  professional 
illustrator — one  John  Tenniel. 

Edward  pointed  out  that  the  story,  mentioned  by  Wil- 
liams and  Madan,  that  Dodgson  recommended  Mary  Bad- 
cock,  daughter  of  Canon  Badcock,  to  Tenniel  as  the  model 
for  Alice,  is  completely  impossible  because  of  the  dates  of 
Tenniel's  drawings,  as  well  as  the  Punch  cover  of  1864  on 
which  the  girl  who  would  be  Alice  appears — some  months 
before  the  supposed  Badcock  incident.*^ 

The  course  of  Dodgson's  own  development  as  a  drafts- 
man may,  however,  merit  some  further  attention.  Consider 

11 


Morton  Cohen  and  Edward  Wakeling  at  the  Fales 


the  illustration  made 
when  he  was  thirteen 
for  Useful  and  Instructive 
Poetry:'^  "the  proportions 
of  the  figure  look  right... 
and  there  is  some  use  of 
perspective" — altogether 
a  not  impromising  start. 
Some  seventeen  years 
later  when  he  incorpo- 
rated his  own  carefully 
drawn  illustrations  into 
the  manuscript  of  Alice's 
Adventures  under  Ground 
he  not  only  worked 
hard  to  get  the  animals 
as  anatomically  correct 
as  he  could,  but  he  also 
learned  the  art  of  spac- 
ing the  illustrations  to 
provide  a  "visual  context 
for  the  tale."  And  yet 
throughout  his  life  he 
adopted  a  rather  self-dep- 
recatory view  of  himself  as 

an  artist.  He  once  said  to  Gertrude  Thomson,  "I  can't  draw 
in  the  least  myself — that's  the  first  qualification  for  an  Art 
Critic."'"  Furniss  was  the  only  artist  employed  by  Dodgson 
who  mocked  Dodgson's  view  of  himself  as  an  artist." 

Quoting  passages  from  many  of  Dodgson's  letters  to 
Frost,  Thomson  and  the  other  artists,  Edward  continued 
to  show  in  some  detail  the  constant  intervention  of  Dodg- 
son's mind's  eye  in  the  work  of  the  artists'  hands,  espe- 
cially wherever  "thick  ankles"  turned  up.  His  talk  provided 
an  excellently  documented  summary  of  one  of  the  themes 
running  through  the  letters  and  was  beautifully  illustrated. 
Forty-two  illustrations,  in  fact! 

Morton  N.  Cohen,  our  second  speaker  of  the  after- 
noon, began  by  saying  how  grateful  he  was  to  Edward 
Wakeling  for  such  a  lucid  lecture  and  how  strongly  he 
agreed  with  Edward  about  the  unjustly  maligned  artistic 
abilities  of  Charles  L.  Dodgson. 

In  the  proem  to  his  rhetorically  masterful  lecture, 
titled  "Facts  and  Fictions,"  Cohen  suggested  that  Dodgson 
reveals  himself  more  in  his  letters  than  in  his  diaries.  At 
first  this  assertion  sounds  rather  counterintuitive  but  the 
letter  writer  reveals  a  great  deal  about  himself  in  what 
he  says  and  how  he  says  it  in  a  manner  we  do  not  find  in 
the  daily  diary  entries.  The  letters  do  not  give  us  a  new 
picture  of  Dodgson  but  rather  broadly  substantiate  the  at- 
titudes, beliefs,  opinions,  and  even  prejudices  that  we  have 
encountered  before.  Cohen ,  who  quoted  about  six  examples 
from  Dodgson's  letters  to  his  illustrators,  is  especially  inter- 
ested in  those  throwaway  lines  that  reveal  so  much  about 
his  character.  Dodgson's  considerate  nature,  for  instance, 
is  revealed  in  the  letter  to  Frost  on  February  24,  1885,  in 
which  he  declines  to  criticize  Frost's  Stuff  and  Nonsense 
since  "The  fun  turns  too  exclusively  on  depicting  brutal 


12 


violence,  terror,  and  phys- 
ical pain,  and  even  death, 
none  of  which  are  funny 
to  me."''"^ 

Cohen  then  turned 
to  another  matter  al- 
together: the  views  of 
Dodgson  put  forth  by 
revisionist  critics  and  by 
apologists  (referring  here 
to  the  work  of  Karoline 
Leach,  Hugues  Lebailly, 
and,  as  discovered  later, 
Edward  Wakeling).  No 
one  owns  the  whole  truth 
about  anyone  else  so  each 
biographer  must  to  some 
extent  create  a  fiction. 
The  historical  works  of 
Edward  Gibbon  and 
Thomas  Carlyle,  great 
though  they  be,  alas,  are 
in  the  end,  fictions.  Least 
desirable  and  persuasive 
are  those  fictions  that 
wander  from  the  facts  or  attempt  to  twist  facts  to  say  the 
opposite  of  what  they  document.  Cohen  has  remained 
silent  as  these  revisionist  theories  surfaced  over  the  past 
several  years  for  two  main  reasons:  Some  of  the  assertions 
were  full  of  distortions,  unworthy  of  reply,  and  others 
were  contrary  to  established  fact  (e.g.,  that  Dodgson  used 
children  only  in  order  to  pursue  their  mothers).  Nothing 
these  revisionists  declared,  he  seemed  to  imply,  could  be 
further  from  the  truth. 

Cohen  then  decried  those  apologists,  the  novelists 
and  critics,  who  on  the  other  hand  say  we  must  look  at  Vic- 
torian attitudes  toward  children  and  once  we  do  that  we 
shall  see  nothing  extraordinary  about  Dodgson's  interest 
in  little  girls. ''^  Clearly  not  every  Oxford  don  or  Anglican 
clergyman  of  the  Victorian  period  spent  a  substantial  part 
of  his  life  in  the  company  of  young  female  children. 

On  the  controversial  matter  of  the  break  between 
Dodgson  and  the  Liddells,  Cohen  pointed  out  that  before 
the  break  on  or  about  June  27,  1863,  Dodgson  had  been 
seeing  the  Liddell  girls  almost  every  day,  and  that  the 
break  was  longer  and  more  serious  than  the  revisionists 
suggest.'^  On  June  25  Dodgson  took  the  girls  back  from 
Nuneham  by  railway,  the  first  documented  case  of  his 
being  alone  with  the  children.  He  said  of  this  trip,  "We 
had  tea  under  the  trees  at  Nuneham,  after  which  the 
rest  drove  home  in  the  carriage  (which  met  them  in  the 
park),  while  Ina,  Alice,  Edith,  and  I  {mirabile  dictul)  walked 
down  to  Abingdon-road  station,  and  so  home  by  railway. 
A  pleasant  expedition  with  a  very  pleasant  conclusion."'-"' 
But  by  his  own  admission,  after  that  he  held  aloof  from 
the  Liddells  until  December  19,  a  total  of  some  174  days, 
or  almost  twenty-five  weeks.  Lorina  Liddell,  as  she  wrote 
Alice  later,  told  Florence  Becker  Lennon  that  Dodgson's 
"manner  became  too  affectionate  to  you  as  you  grew  older 


and  that  mother  spoke  to  him....""'  Here  the  apologists 
say  Dodgson  was  only  displaying  paternal  interest. 

As  for  Dodgson 's  older  female  friends,  he  never  wrote 
acrostic  poems  to  them,  never  made  long  lists  of  their 
names,  and  never  walked  long  miles  with  them  the  way 
he  did  with  the  young  girls.  He  clearly  befriended  mature 
females,  but  not  for  emotional  sustenance,  and  he  never 
loved  them.  The  revisionists  count  Dodgson's  letters  to 
matiue  women,  but  they  do  not  say  that  most  of  those 
letters  are  about  their  children.  A  letter  to  Enid  Stevens's 
mother  was  cited  asjust  one  example.'"  Likewise,  they  also 
make  much  of  the  female  guests  at  Guildford  without 
commenting  on  the  bevy  of  Dodgson's  sisters  surrounding 
them."^ 

Finally,  there  is  the  infamous  scrap  of  paper  from  the 
Guildford  Muniment  Room'-'  describing  the  contents  of 
the  famous  ripped  page.  Cohen  says  that  he  and  Philip 
Dodgson  Jaques,  executor  of  the  Dodgson  estate  at  the 
time,  had  a  good  laugh  about  the  assertion  by  the  revision- 
ists that  it  had  been  written  by  Violet  Dodgson,  Carroll's 
niece.-"  Cohen  knows  exactly  who  wrote  it  and  promises  to 
reveal  this  information  in  a  forthcoming  book  or  article. 
In  the  meantime,  the  information  has  been  deposited  for 
safekeeping  in  an  envelope  should  anything  happen  to 
him  before  he  has  the  opportimity  to  explain  this  matter 
in  print. 

"Facts  and  fictions  intermingle  in  our  lives  but  fictions 
built  on  manipulated  'truths,'  like  those  of  the  Apologists 
and  the  Revisionists,  will  crumble  into  dust,"  he  said. 


A  short  break  preceded  our  fourth  LCSNA  auction 
with  very  spirited  bidding  under  the  able  and  enthusiastic 
direction  of  Joel  Birenbaum.  Some  $2,400  was  raised  for 
the  society's  funds  from  the  books,  artifacts,  and  treasures 
contributed  by  members.  The  auction  was  held  in  the 
original  Berol  Room  but  I  fear  there  may  have  been  only 
a  few  things  that  would  have  interested  that  discriminat- 
ing collector.  We  then  moved  to  the  Fales  gallery  to  enjoy 
wine  and  cheese  and  snacks  before  returning  to  the  library 
meeting  room  at  about  seven  o'clock. 

Andrew  Sellon,  Elizabeth  London,  and  Tim  Sheahan 
gave  an  engrossing  and  entertaining  reading  of  Andrew's 
play  Through  the  Looking-Glass  Darkly,  a  work  in  progress, 
about  Dodgson's  life.  It  was  sort  of  a  Thornton  Wilder 
"Our  Wonderland"  with  Dodgson,  who  has  just  died, 
flanked  by  a  man  and  a  woman  who  lead  him  back  through 
significant  events  of  his  life.  Sellon's  Dodgson  comments 
on  what  those  key  events  meant,  often  in  his  own  words  (a 
device  also  used  in  Kevin  Moore's  Crocodiles  and  Cream  but 
richer  and  more  biting)  in  response  to  the  leading  ques- 
tions of  his  two  mysterious  guides.  The  ending  will  not  be 
revealed  here.  It  was  a  brilliant  performance  by  all  but 
especially  by  Andrew  Sellon. 

It  was  after  nine  o'clock  as  we  wandered,  sated,  across 
the  Escheresque  floor  of  the  library  and  out  onto  Washing- 
ton Square. 


'  See  www.dalton.org. 

^  Helen  Parkhurst,  Education  on  the  Dal- 
ton  Plan  (New  York:  Dutton,  1922), 
www.dalton.org/AboiitDalton/about_ 
histoiT.shtml. 

^  In  three  letters  from  Carroll  to  Agnes  and 
Amy  Hughes,  [?1871],  in  Stuart  Dodgson 
Collingwood's  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lewis 
Carroll  (London:  Unwin,  1898),  420-23; 
or  The  Letters  ofLeivis  Carroll  (New  York: 
Oxford  Universit)' Press,  1979),  1:160-162 

"*  Hilary  Jenkinson,  .4  Alanual  of  Archive  Ad- 
ministration (London:  Lund.  Humphries, 
196.5),  rcrg.dstc.edu.an/publications/ 
fuptrc.html. 

•^  Morton  N.  Cohen  and  Edward  Wakeling, 
Lewis  Carroll  and  His  Illustrators:  Collabora- 
tions and  Correspondence,  1S65-1898  (Ithaca, 
NY:  Cornell  University  Press,  20().S). 

''  (jollingwood,  The  Life  and  Letters,  102 

"  Dodgson,  July  16,  186.3,  Edward  Wakeling, 
Lewis  Carroll's  Diaries:  The  Private  journals 
of  Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson  (Clifford,  Eng- 
land: The  Lewis  Carroll  Society,  1997), 
4:220-21. 

^  Sidney  Herbert  Williams  and  Falconer 
Madan,  A  Handbook  of  the  Literature  of  the 
Rev.  C.  L.  Dodgson  (Lewis  Carroll)  (London: 
Milford,  1931),  22.  For  the  Punch  Alice 


illustration  and  the  Badcock  photograph 
as  well  as  a  full  critique,  see  Michael 
Hancher,  The  Tenniel  Illustrations  to  the 
"Alice"  Books  (Columbus,  Ohio  State  Press, 
198.5),  22,  101-2. 

^  The  illustration  is  not  in  Derek  Hudson's 
19.54  commercial  publication  of  this  work. 

'"  Dodgson  to  Thomson,  [n.  d.]  in  "Lewis 
(Carroll:  A  Sketch  by  an  Artist-Friend,"  Ger- 
trude Thomson,  Gentlexuoman  (January  29, 
1898)  reprinted  in  Cohen  and  Wakeling, 
Leivis  Carroll  and  His  Illustrators,  321 .  The 
original  letter  is  missing. 

"  Dodgson  to  Furniss,  April  24[?],  1885,  in 
Cohen  and  Wakeling,  Lewis  Carroll  and  His 
Illustrators,  1 14. 

'-  Dodgson  to  Frost,  Februar\'  24,  1885, 
Cx)hen  and  Wakeling,  Leu'is  Carroll  and  His 
Illustrators,  97. 

'■^  Hugues  Lebailly,  "C.  L.  Dodgson  and  the 
Victorian  Cult  of  the  CJhild,"  Carrollian,  no. 
4  (Autumn  1999). 

'^  Wakeling,  Ij^wis  Carroll's  Diaries,  4:214-15, 
nn.  227-28.  Also  see  Wakeling,  "Mr.  Dodg- 
son and  the  Royal  Family"  p.  5. 

'•''  Dodgson,  June  25,  1863,  Wakeling,  Lewis 
Carroll's  Diaries,  4:213. 

'•'  Lorina  Skene  to  Alice  Hargreaves,  May  2, 
1930,  in  Edward  Wakeling,  "Two  Letters 


from  Lorina  to  Alice,"  fabbenuocky  21 ,  no.  4, 
issue  80  (Autimin  1992):  92. 

'  ^  Dodgson  to  Enid  Stevens,  February  28, 
1891,  in  Morton  N.  Cohen,  The  Letters  of 
Lewis  Carroll,  2:825.  Enid  was  born  in  1882. 
[To  imderstiuid  the  ambiguity  in  letter 
counting,  sec  also  March  2,  1891;  March  9, 
1891;  April  1,  1891;  April  5,  1891;.\pril  16, 
1891;  April  17,  1891;June  16,  1891;  May  5, 
1892;  May  27,  1892;  June  1,  1892;  Novem- 
ber 16;  1892;  April  14,  1893;  June  6,  1893; 
January  26,  1894,  restricting  the  list  to  only 
Mrs.  Stevens.] 

'**  For  a  prior  publication  of  this  criticism,  see 
Donald  Rackin,  review  of  In  the  Shadow  of 
the  Dreamrhild,  by  Karoline  Leach,  Victorian 
Studies  43,  no.  4  (Summer  2001 ):  652. 

'■'  The  Dodgson  Family  Collection  of  arti- 
facts, family  letters  and  papers,  photo- 
graphs, printed  matter  and  childhood 
ephemera  was  on  deposit  at  the  Guildford 
Museinn  and  later  the  (iuildford  Muni- 
ment Room  between  1965  and  1981.  The 
archi%es  were  moved  to  the  Surrey  Histor)' 
Centre  in  Woking  in  1998. 

-"  Karoline  Leach,  In  the  Shadow  of  the  Dream- 
child:  A  New  Understanding  of  Lewis  Carroll 
(London:  Peter  Owen,  1999),  170-71. 


13 


-^^ 


Still  More  Contemporary  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Reviews 

August  A.  Imholtz  Jr.  and  Clare  Imholtz 


^^ 


We  have  recently  come  across  two  more 
contemporary  reviews  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno.  The 
first  appeared  in  Frank  Leslie's  Popular  Monthly 
as  the  lead  review  in  the  "Literary  Memoranda"  column  for 
April  1890.  The  second  and  more  blistering,  from  Godey's 
Magazine  of  MsLy  1896,  is  actually  part  of  a  broader  article, 
entitled  "The  Art  of  Intentional  Nonsense,"  which  discusses 
not  only  Sylvie  and  Bruno  but  the  Alicehooks,  Edward  Lear, 
and  early  Carroll  imitators  such  as  Anna  M.  Richards  Sr. 
and  Charles  E.  Carryl.  The  review  is  signed  "Chelifer," 
a  pseudonym  we  have  not  yet  been  able  to  decode.  See 
Knight  Letters  62,  63,  67,  and  71  for  the  previous  reviews  of 
the  Sylvie  and  Bruno  books  located  for  this  series. 

FRANK  Leslie's  popular  monthly: 

VOL.  29,  APRIL  1890 

Lewis  Carroll's  newjuvenile  treasure-trove,  entitled  "Sylvie 
and  Bruno"  (Macmillan  8c  Co.),  is  a  book  rich  in  amazing 
conceits  and  droll  speeches,  illustrated  with  forty-six  draw- 
ings by  Harry  Furniss,  which  the  author  justly  pronounces 
"wonderful."  If  this  work  falls  short  of  the  sensational 
success  of  the  same  author's  "Alice  in  Wonderland,"  it 
is  only  because  the  latter  was  absolutely  original,  unique, 
unapproachable.  In  "Sylvie  and  Bruno,"  Mr.  Carroll  has 
endeavored  to  strike  out  yet  another  new  path,  combining 
all  sorts  of  odd  ideas,  fragments  of  dialogue,  quotations, 
perversions,  and  dreams,  into  an  eccentric  tale  of  two  little 
children  who  flutter  back  and  forth  between  fairy-land 
and  the  world  of  reality  in  a  charmingly  irresponsible  fash- 
ion. All  through  the  story  there  pops  up,  now  and  again, 
a  kind  of  crazy  Gardener,  who  chants  "in  shrill,  discordant 
tones"  such  stanzas  as: 

"He  thought  he  saw  an  Elephant 

That  practiced  on  a  fife: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

A  letter  from  his  wife. 
'At  length  I  realize,'  he  said, 

'The  bitterness  of  life.'" 

One  of  the  queerest  things  about  the  book  is  a  sermonizing 
preface — evidently  written  on  purpose  to  be  skipped — in 


which  the  author  seriously  enjoins  his  young  readers  never 
to  go  to  any  entertainment  where  they  would  be  afraid  to 
die:  "If  the  thought  of  sudden  death,"  he  says,  "acquires 
for  you,  a  special  horror  when  imagined  as  happening  in 
a  theatre,  then  be  very  sure  the  theatre  is  harmful  for  you, 
however  harmless  it  may  be  for  others;  and  that  you  are 
incurring  a  deadly  peril  in  going.  Be  sure  the  safest  rule 
is  that  we  should  not  dare  to  live  in  any  scene  in  which 
we  dare  not  die."  Perhaps  some  of  the  mad  Gardener's 
remarks  have  got  themselves  mixed  up  with  Mr.  Carroll's 
Introduction. 

godey's  magazine:  vol.  132,  no.  791,  may  1,  1896 
[Discussing  the  role  of  logical  reversal  in  Carroll's  non- 
sense]... In  "Sylvie  and  Bruno"  we  hear  of  a  little  girl  so 
light  that  it  is  easier  carrying  her  than  not;  and  later  there 
is  a  sort  of  backward  feast,  in  which  one  hears  of  unroast- 
ing  the  mutton  and  giving  it  to  the  butcher,  re-wrapping 
the  potatoes  and  giving  them  back  to  the  gardener  to  bury; 
and  there  is  the  alligator  that  walks  up  its  own  tail  and 
across  its  own  forehead  and  down  its  own  nose.  If  there 
were  more  of  these  incidents  "Sylvie  and  Bruno"  would 
be  another  success  instead  of  a  horrible  nondescript  with 
a  moralizing,  egotistical  preface  in  extremely  bad  taste,  a 
milk-and-water  love  story  unintelligible  to  children  and 
deadly  dull  for  their  elders,  and  a  tormenting  in-mixture 
of  puerility,  which  must  surely  be  dull  for  children  of  any 
age.  Herein,  too,  Carroll  unloads  quantities  of  ghastly  and 
typical  British  humor,  a  veritable  pun-pudding  fairly  reek- 
ing with  italics.  It  is  fortunately  relieved  from  utter  ruin  by 
the  immortal  "Gardener's  Song,"  and  a  few  other  traces  of 
pure  Carrollesque. 


14 


THE  AUTHENTIC  WASP 


Matthew  Demakos 


"But  'glory'  doesn't  mean  'a  nice  knock-down  argument,  '"Alice  objected. 

"When  I  use  a  word,  "  Humpty  Dumpty  said  in  rather  a  scornful  tone,  "it  means  just 

what  I  choose  it  to  mean — neither  more  nor  less. 

— Through  the  Looking-Glass 


GLORY 

Twenty-five  years  ago  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  held  a  sym- 
posium on  the  authenticity  of  "The  Wasp  in  a  Wig,"  an 
excised  episode  from  Through  the  Looking-Glass.  Sotheby's 
had  auctioned  the  galley  sheets  to  the  episode  four  years 
before  and  The  Sunday  Telegraph^  was  the  first  to  have 
published  the  piece  in  full,  eight  months  prior  to  the  sym- 
posium. Many  of  the  contributors  questioned  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  sheets  and  the  handwritten  markings  to  omit 
the  section,  some  declaring  the  piece  a  mere  forgery.  The 
purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  examine  the  criticisms  afresh, 
taking  advantage  of  the  passing  years,  new  technology, 
and,  especially,  two  subsequently  discovered  documents. 

The  first  evidence  of  the  episode  came  from  Stuart 
Dodgson  Collingwood,  whose  biography  of  his  uncle.  The 
Life  and  Letters  of  Lewis  Carroll  (1899),  contained  a  letter 
from  John  Tenniel,  dated  June  1,  1870: 

I  think  that  where  the  jump  occurs  in  the  Railway 
scene  you  might  very  well  make  Alice  lay  hold 
of  the  Goat's  beard  as  being  the  object  nearest  to 
her  hand — instead  of  the  old  lady's  hair.  The  jerk 
would  naturally  throw  them  together. 

Don't  think  me  brutal,  but  I  am  bound  to  say 
that  the  'wasp'  chapter  doesn't  interest  me  in  the 
least,  +  I  can't  see  my  way  to  a  picture.  If  you  want 
to  shorten  the  book,  I  can't  help  thinking — with  all 
submission — that  there  is  your  opportunity. 

In  an  agony  of  haste  [.]' 
Tenniel  may  have  been  reminded  of  Carroll's  desire  to 
shorten  the  book  by  remembering  his  previous  thoughts 
about  the  railway  scene,  as  indicated  in  a  letter  dated  a 
couple  of  months  before: 

I  would  infinitely  rather  give  no  opinion  as  to  what 
would  be  best  left  out  of  the  book,  but  since  you 
put  the  question  point-blank,  I  am  bound  to  say, 
supposing  excision  somewhere  to  be  absolutely 
necessary,  that  the  Railway  scene  never  did  strike 
me  as  being  very  strong,  and  that  I  think  it  might 
be  sacrificed  without  much  repining;  besides,  there 
is  no  subject  down  in  illustration  of  it  in  the  con- 
densed list. 

Please  let  me  know  to  what  extent  you  have 
used,  or  intend  using,  the  pruning-knife,  my  great 
fear  is  that  all  this  indecision  and  revision  will  inter- 
fere fatally  with  the  progress  of  the  book.^ 


Since  Tenniel's  letter  linked  the  two  episodes,  and 
the  illustrations  following  the  railway  scene  were  of  insects 
like  the  Wasp — the  Rocking-Horse-fly,  the  Snap-Dragon-fly 
and  the  Bread-and-butter-fly — scholars  were  bound  to  as- 
sume they  were  in  close  proximity.  In  1947  Roger  Lance- 
lyn  Green  wrote  in  The  Story  of  Lewis  Carroll: 

and  the  "wasp"  chapter  was  left  out — (how  one 
wonders  what  it  was  about,  and  how  one  envies 
Tenniel  who  was  perhaps  the  only  person  who  ever 
read  it!) — which  is  perhaps  why  Alice  takes  such  a 
very  short  time  in  getting  all  the  way  to  the  Fourth 
Square,  though  to  be  sure  a  pawn  can  jump  over  a 
whole  square  in  its  first  move."* 

In  1952,  Alexander  Taylor  in  The  White  Knight:  A  Study 
of  C.  L.  Dodgson  also  suggested  the  episode  came  in  the 
same  place:  "Apparently  Dodgson  meant  her  to  go  down 
among  the  insects,  for  Alice  decided  to  go  down  the  other 
way,  which  would  take  her  towards  them.  But  at  this  point 
Tenniel  rebelled  and  refused  to  draw  a  wasp  wearing  a 
wig."  Taylor  also  furthered  a  suggestion  made  by  Collin- 
gwood, concluding  that  an  insect  so  clad  "in  view  of  the 
recent  Church  trials,  was  surely  not  entirely  without  inter- 
est.""^  And  two  years  later  in  1954,  Derek  Hudson  declared 
Collingwood's  inkling  a  fact,  writing:  "Tenniel  played  a 
part  in  shaping  the  text  as  well  as  the  illustrations,  for  it 
was  by  his  advice  that  a  projected  chapter  introducing  a 
wasp  in  the  character  of  a  judge  or  barrister  was  omitted, 
and  that  Alice  in  the  railway  carriage  was  made  to  catch 
at  the  goat's  beard  which  'seemed  to  melt  away  as  she 
touched  it.'"''  Likewise,  Selw\'n  Goodacre,  in  a  suppressed 
paper  written  before  the  galleys  were  announced  for  auc- 
tion, surmised  that  the  wasp  was  one  of  the  looking-glass 
insects  in  chapter  three."  Lastly,  and  quite  oddly  enough, 
Rodney  Engen  writing  in  1991,  despite  the  publication  of 
the  gallevs,  believed  the  railway  episode  "continued  with 
what  is  now  called  the  'Wasp  in  the  Wig'  passage."** 

Yet,  the  supposed  forger  of  "Wasp"  shunned  the  intu- 
ition of  at  least  two  scholars,  making  three  decisions  that 
would  later  prove  clairvoyant.  First,  he  decided  not  to  make 
his  forgery  a  full  chapter.  Second,  he  decided  to  place  his 
Wasp  away  from  the  railway  scene  and  the  subsequent  in- 
sects. Last,  he  decided  to  link  the  section  with  the  White 
Knight  chapter.  Naturally,  this  puzzled  the  scholars  at  the 
symposium.-'  Why  would  Carroll  place  an  aged  wasp  after 
an  aged  knight  and  a  song  about  an  aged  (aged)  man?  Ra- 

15 


.^^^ 


phael  Shaberman  shrugged  "The 
author  of  the  'Wasp'  chapter  seems 
to  have  accepted  whole-heartedly 
Oscar  Wilde's  dictum  that  'noth- 
ing succeeds  like  excess' — a  dictum 
that  I  think  would  have  been  deci- 
sively rejected  by  Lewis  Carroll."'" 

Unbeknownst  to  these  panel- 
ists, however,  there  were  at  least 
two  documents  that  supported  the 
three  "clairvoyant"  points  above.  In 
1992,  Edward  Wakeling  published 
"The  Illustration  Plan  for  Through 
the  Looking-Glass"  in  Jabberwocky,  an 
article  detailing  and  reproducing 
a  document  he  found  a  few  years 
earlier  in  the  Christ  Church  ar- 
chives." In  the  congested  scribble 
of  this  two-page  plan  (right),  below 
the  illustrations  named  "Battle  of 
2  knights,"  "Knight  falling"  and 
"Knight  singing,"  the  single  word 
"Wasp"  appears  crossed  out,  and 
surrounded  by  "Knight  in  ditch" 
and  "Old  man  on  gate." 

The  other  document — repro- 
duced here  for  the  first  time — also 
indicates  the  episode's  location. 
The  Houghton  Library  at  Harvard 
University  houses  many  rare  Car- 
rollian  items,  such  as  the  early 
drafts  with  emendations  of  the  pre- 
liminary pages  to  Looking-Glass.^ - 
On  the  table  of  contents  page  (re- 
produced on  page  18),  beneath  the 
chapters  titled  "The  Lion  and  the 
Unicorn,"  and  "Check!" — an  early 
title  for  the  Knight  chapter — ap- 
pears a  chapter  without  a  title,  a 

perfect  and  absolute  blank.  This  is  followed  by  "Queen 
Alice"  and  "Waking."  Though  having  no  mention  of  a 
wasp,  the  document,  without  the  aid  of  the  illustration 
plan,  supports  the  supposed  forger's  placement  of  the 
"thirteenth"  chapter. 

With  this  time-line  of  events,  a  concept  developed  by 
Mark  Israel,''^  the  suggestion  of  a  forgery  becomes  noth- 
ing more  than  a  conspiracy  theory,  smacked  with  insipid 
improbabilities.  Though  not  the  "glory"  of  the  scornful 
Humpty  Dumpty  in  his  epigram,  these  subsequent  finds 
do  force  present-day  naysayers  to  continually  adjust  their 
story.  Certainly,  a  forger  with  knowledge  of  the  contents 
page  alone  would  have  headed  off  his  masterpiece  with 
"Chapter  X"  or,  with  knowledge  of  the  illustration  plan 
alone,  "Chapter  IX."  But  if  he  was  familiar  with  both  docu- 
ments— a  concept  to  excite  only  a  conspiracy  theorist — the 
globetrotting  forger  did  the  next  best  thing  and  avoided 
the  issue.  Of  course,  the  forger  could  have  been  familiar 
with  some  extant  document  depicting  certain  facts  about 
the  episode.  However,  in  almost  thirty  years  of  Lewis  Car- 

16 


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Leuns  Carroll,  The  Illuslralion  Plan  /or  Through  the  l.ooking-Glass.   Black  and  viokt  ink  on  paper. 


roll  studies  since  the  auction  of  the  galleys,  no  documents 
have  been  found  to  expose  the  galleys  as  a  mere  forgery. 
That  may  certainly  be  the  best  practical  argument  for 
authenticity.  If  the  forger  had  some  unknown  piece  of 
Carrolliana,  what  are  the  odds  that  it  would  7^// with  subse- 
quent finds,  and  why  hasn't  it  been  up  for  auction?  Surely, 
a  forger  would  only  concern  himself  with  the  present, 
careless  of  what  might  be  found  several  years  hence.  But  to 
date,  nothing  has  discredited  the  galleys. 

Alas,  the  questioning  of  the  galleys  to  "The  Wasp  in 
a  Wig"  continues.  As  recently  as  1998,  Hugh  Haughton, 
creating  notes  for  the  Penguin  Classics  edition  of  the  Alice 
stories,  warned  that  "The  authenticity  of  the  'Wasp  in  a 
Wig'  episode  is  questionable,"'^  directing  readers  to  the 
special  edition  oi  Jabberwocky  which  detailed  the  discus- 
sion of  the  Wasp  Symposium.  No  mention  is  made  of  the 
subsequent  discovery  of  the  illustration  plan,  which  alone 
challenged  the  best  criticisms.  Was  it  not  made  a  slippery 
point  in  1992? 


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Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

HOARY 

Some  arguments  against  the  episode,  aging  with  a  respect- 
able grayish  color,  have  likely  resonated  with  some  long- 
time Carroll  enthusiasts.  This  section — though  somewhat 
needlessly  in  the  present  author's  opinion — will  present 
them  and  dismiss  them,  but  not  without  a  favorable  twist 
towards  the  end. 

One  of  the  most  persistent  complaints  at  the  Wasp 
Symposium  was  that  the  newly  discovered  episode  seemed 
too  reminiscent  of  other  episodes  in  Looking-Glass  and 
Wonderland.  To  give  the  reader  a  fair  chance  to  analyze 
the  strength  of  these  accusations,  they  are  presented 
in  the  sidebar  (see  pages  20  and  21),  along  with  others 
found  outside  the  symposiimi.  Decidedly,  six  of  the  ten 
are  dismissible  occurrences — the  locks,  the  English,  the 
rhyme,  the  dear,  the  treacle,  and  the  bad  hair  day — and 
the  remaining  four  are  no  stronger  than  other  connec- 
tions readers  have  made  between  certain  parts  of  the  Alice 
books.  In  the  Knight  chapter  alone  (a  forced  limitation 
as  a  matter  of  demonstration),  many  similar  connections 
can  be  made.  For  example,  Carroll's  use  of  random  words 


humorously  describing  a  pudding 
includes  the  word  "sealing-wax,"  a 
word  prominent  in  another  seem- 
ingly miscellaneous  list,  the  Wal- 
rus's "Of  shoes — and  ships — and 
sealing-wax...."  Speaking  of  which, 
the  Walrus's  poem  and  the  Knight's 
song  both  have  lines  in  them  about 
bodies  getting  fatter  and  faces  turn- 
ing blue — "Turning  a  little  blue  ..." 
and  "Until  his  face  was  blue...."''' 
"The  Aged  Aged  Man"  also  has  a 
thematic  structure  comparable  to 
"Father  William""'  (albeit  the  first 
version  of  the  White  Knight's  song 
was  written  before  "Father  Wil- 
liam"). Janis  Lull,  in  her  essay  "The 
Appliances  of  Art,"  even  makes 
a  connection  between  the  many 
items  on  the  Knight's  steed  and 
other  parts  of  the  Alice  books.'"  In 
his  Definitive  Edition,  Gardner  anno- 
tates only  the  last  connection,  the 
others  being,  like  the  connections 
made  from  "Wasp,"  too  tedious  to 
detail. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Car- 
roll  appropriated   some   material 
from  "W^asp"  in  other  chapters."^ 
This  is  doubtful.  No  phrases  be- 
yond those  of  cliches  are  reused, 
and    the    concepts,    like    Humpty 
Dumpty's  comment  on  Alice's  face, 
are  decidedly  from  a  different  per- 
spective. It  is  perhaps  better  to  ac- 
knowledge that  Carroll  dwelled  on 
certain  things,  as  many  artists  do, 
and  had  a  certain  stock  of  comic 
devices.  He  obviously  dwelled  on 
pigs  and  fatness  and  indeed  fat  pigs  that  could  not  fly  or 
jump.  See  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland;  Through  the  Look- 
ing-Glass;  The  Hunting  of  the  Snark;  Sylvie  and  Bruno;  Sylvie 
and  Bruno  Concluded;  Symbolic  Logic,  Part  I;  and  Symbolic 
Logic,  Part  IL^^ 

Several  other  issues  were  raised  during  the  panel  dis- 
cussion. Selw)'n  Goodacre  voiced  his  concern  with  the  line 
"look  so  nice  /  As  they  had  ventured  to  expect...",  indicat- 
ing that  it  should  read  "They  said  I  did  not  look  as  nice  / 
As  they  had  ventured  to  expect."-"  However,  Webster's  Dic- 
tionary of  English  Usage  states  that  "up  until  about  a  century 
ago  [that  is,  1872],  50  ...  a.9was  the  regular  form  in  nega- 
tive statements."-^'  Carroll  even  used  the  negative  "so  ...  as" 
construction  in  two  incidences  in  Wonderland  and  two  in 
Looking-Glass: 

"at  least  not  so  mad  as  it  was  in  March." 

"you  needn't  be  so  proud  as  all  that." 

"They  don't  keep  this  room  so  tidy  as  the  other...." 

"if  he  didn't  eat  so  many  as  the  Walrus. '"-^^ 

17 


--      2// 

—  a/3 


/x 

X 
XI 


No  "as  ...  as"  constructions 
in  the  negative  context  in 
Carroll's  works  have  been 
located. 

Goodacre  also  alleged 
that  the  Wasp's  impromptu 
poem  contains  "lines  that 
did  not  scan."^"^  In  fact, 
the  scansion  is  flawless.  It 
could  be  argued,  however, 
that  the  exact  scanning  is 
the  cause  for  concern.  In  a 
poem  of  this  length,  Car- 
roll often  used  trochaic 
substitutions  on  the  first 
foot,  augmenting  an  iambic 
line  from  -/-/-/-/ to 
/^^/»/_./.  The  lack 
of  this  mature  poetical  de- 
vice, along  with  the  simple 
stanza  form  chosen — four 
lines  of  four  feet  each — im- 
bues the  poem  with  sing- 
song, a  temperament  best 
avoided.  Since  Carroll 
shunned  trochaic  substitu- 
tions in  other  poems  of 
similar  length — "The  Wil- 
low Tree"  (1859),  Humpty 
Dumpty's  "A  Message  to 
the  Fish"  (1871),  "Matilda 
Jane"  (1893)^4_the  issue 
turns  into  nothing  more 
than  pedantic  padding. 

Later  in  the  discussion, 
Veronica  Hickie  cringed,  "I  just  could  not  accept  that  it 
came  after  the  perfect  encounter  of  Alice  with  the  White 
Knight....  those  two  old  characters  together  seemed  quite 
wrong."-'^  But  Carroll's  image  of  the  White  Knight,  a  char- 
acter invented  to  recite  the  poem  about  an  "Aged  Aged" 
gate-sitter,  was  not  originally  old.  He  advised  Tenniel  that 
"The  White  Knight  must  not  have  whiskers;  he  must  not 
be  made  to  look  old."^^  The  very  deletion  of  the  Wasp  may 
have  convinced  Carroll  to  allow  Tenniel  to  portray  the 
knight  in  his  autumn  years. 

Some  members  of  the  panel  asserted  subjective  points 
to  challenge  the  authenticity  of  the  "Wasp"  galleys.  These 
are  perhaps  best  left  unexplored,  as  can  be  demonstrated 
by  one  point  voiced  by  P.  F.  Walker  and  another  written  by 
Martin  Gardner  in  the  first  book  publication  of  the  epi- 
sode. Both  commentators  singled  out  the  Wasp's  remark 

about  Alice's  eyes:  "Then  your  eyes they're  too  much 

in  front,  no  doubt.  One  would  have  done  as  well  as  two, 

if  you  must  have  them  so  close "^'  Walker  expressed 

a  raucous  concern:  "what  on  earth  do  I  do  with  that  'no 
doubt'?"  On  the  line  "One  would  have  done  as  well  as 
two...",  the  panelist  added  "Carroll  was  never  as  obscure 
as  that — ever."  On  the  other  hand,  Gardner,  defending 
the  episode  against  charges  of  forgery,  singled  out  this  dia- 

18 


CONTENTS. 

IIIAPTER  (.^,jE 

r.    rr««-.<M.A8a-eBiiTAiN ,     .     .     .      i 

It.      TUB   Q.VRDE.V   OF   MVK    Fl.OWKHS J^S^ 

HI.      LOOKING-GLASS   1\SECT8 >^  \^ 

IV.      TWEEDLEDUM   AND   TWKEDLKDKK O  ^ 

V.    i*W«lQ-B*©ftW*lW« 

VI.  \ SCENTED   RUSHES. 

VII.      UUMPTir-DUMPTr         

VIII.      THE   LION    AND   TUB    UNICORN 

J^.^CI1ECK! 

#\ 

ItiC    QUEE.V   ALIoa 

Ik 

WAKING 


The  early  draft  of  the  Table  of  Contents  forThrou^h  the  Looking-Glass.  Pencil  and  black 
and  violet  ink  corrections  on  paper,  7.5  x  5  in.  Houghton  Library,  Harvard  University. 


log,  branding  it  "pure 
Carroll."'-^" 

After  the  comple- 
tion of  the  nine-mem- 
ber panel  discussion, 
one  member  (Denis 
Crutch)  simply  intro- 
duced the  topic,  two 
members  (Michael  Or- 
love  and  Veronica  Hick- 
ie) argued  for  caution, 
heading  a  bit  toward  au- 
thenticity, three  (Raph- 
ael Shaberman,  P.  F. 
Walker,  and  Peter  Shaw) 
argued  for  forgery,  and 
two  (Anne  Clark  and 
Edward  Wakeling)  ar- 
gued for  genuineness. 
The  panel  would  have 
to  wait  to  hear  Selwyn 
Goodacre's  conclusion. 
In  a  paper  deliv- 
ered at  the  symposium 
entitled  "Considera- 
tions of  Physical  Fac- 
tors," Goodacre  raised 
several  issues,  both  for 
and  against  authentic- 
ity. Limiting  ourselves 
to  the  latter,  first,  he 
stated  that  the  "a"  spell- 
ing of  "gray" — seen  in 
the  galleys — "did  not 
come  in  until  about 
1889,  and  even  then  was  not  used  in  the  1897  Alice  texts. '"^-^ 
The  CD-ROM  version  of  The  Oxford  English  Dictionary  has 
numerous  examples  of  "gray",  so  spelled,  by  British  writers. 
Keeping  with  the  years  1869  and  1870,  the  spelling  occurs 
in  John  Phillips'  Vesuvius,  "ejected  blocks  of  gray  lava  on 
Somma";  in  Dickens'  Edtoin  Drood,  "with  a  buff  waistcoat 
and  gray  trousers";  and  Ruskin's  Queen  of  the  Air,  "Under 
gray  sky,  unveined  by  vermilion  or  by  gold."'^"  Carroll,  who 
owned  all  three  of  these  books,'''  even  owned  up  to  the 
spelling  himself  in  three  poems  in  Phantasmagoria  (1869), 
his  book  nearest  the  publication  of  Looking-Glass,  and  in 
one  poem  in  Rhyme?  and  Reason?  (1883).  More  directly, 
Carroll  himself  even  hand-printed  the  "a"  spelling  in  the 
handwritten  "Father  William"  version  in  Alice's  Adventures 
under  Ground  ( 1 863)  .'- 

Next  Goodacre  found  the  purple  handwriting  on 
the  galleys  ("omit  to  middle  of  slip  68-")  to  be  suspect.-^^ 
This  is  subjective  and  the  present  author  admittedly  is  not 
an  expert  in  the  field  of  graphology.  However,  it  can  be 
pointed  out  that  none  of  the  words  nor  the  individual 
letters  incite  concern.  Instead  of  being  "forced  and  ugly," 
each  letter  or  word  can  be  matched  in  type  to  a  known 
Carroll  formation.  The  following  table  gives  the  closest 


match  found  for  some  of  the  letters  in  the  phrase,  the  last 
being  from  galley  68: 


"Wasp" 

Compare 

Location 

Date 

Page 

The  t  in  omit 

ancient 

Letters 

[Apr.  12,  1878] 

306 

The  t  in  omit 

Felt 

Letters 

[?  Feb.  1868] 

114 

to 

to 

Letters 

[1864-67] 

72 

to 

to 

Letters 

Mar.  25,  1881 

412 

of 

of 

Private  Coll. 

Dec.  23,  1897 

of 

of 

Private  Coll. 

Aug.  28,  1892 

S  in  Slip 

She 

Letters 

Mar.  25,  1881 

412 

S  in  Slip 

Sep 

Private  Coll. 

Sep.  7,  1892 

S  in  Slip 

see 

Private  Coll. 

Aug.  28,  1992 

Slip 

Slip 

Letters 

[1864-67] 

72 

6  in  68 

(W)/65 

Letters 

[1864-67] 

72 

O  in  Omit 

Oct 

Private  Coll. 

Oct.  31,  1892 

Though  the  self-crossed  "t,"  the  downward  scooping  link- 
ing of  the  "o"  and  "f '  in  "of,"  and  the  round  top-edge  of 
the  "6,"  are  somewhat  rarer  than  other  forms,  they  were 
each  found,  and  represented  in  the  chart,  showing  that 
Carroll  did  execute  them  from  time  to  time.  The  upright 
"S"  in  "Slip"  is  more  characteristic,  admittedly,  of  Carroll's 
hand-printing  than  of  his  cursive  writing,  and  can  be 
found  ubiquitously  in  his  handwritten  Under  Ground  manu- 
script. The  downward  angle  of  the  entire  phrase  perhaps 
explains  the  uprightness  of  the  letter,  though  its  three- 
sided-diamond  shaped  bottom  half  is  entirely  Carrollian. 

"There  are  seven  changes  of  punctuation,"  Goodacre 
continued,  directing  his  attention  to  the  handwritten  cor- 
rections. "Two  are  the  addition  of  a  comma  before  speech: 
This  is  very  un-Carroll  like;  in  the  People's  Edition  correc- 
tions, and  the  1897  corrections,  he  went  to  considerable 
pains  to  remove  such  commas,  they  are  never  added. "^"^ 
Goodacre  is  only  partly  correct.  The  removals  he  mentions 
are  probably  of  commas  before  quotation  marks  where 
quotations  do  not  appear  previously  in  the  sentence  and 
where  the  phrase  immediately  before  the  quotation  con- 
tains the  speech  indicator  without  an  offsetting  comma- 
inserted  phrase. '^"^  In  "Wasp,"  therefore,  Carroll  only  made 
one  such  correction,  not  two: 

Alice  began  with  a  little  scream  of  laughing 
[laughter],  which  she  turned  into  a  cough  as  well 
as  she  could:  at  [could.  At]  last  she  managed  to  say 
gravely[,]  "I  can  bite  anything  I  want."^'' 
Several  facts  diminish  the  point  gready.  First,  that 
one  correction  probably  stands  against  the  rule  because 
Carroll  split  one  sentence  into  two.  As  can  be  seen  above, 
and  even  more  so  on  the  facsimile  of  the  galleys,  Carroll 
could  have  easily  missed  his  previous  handwritten  edit  or 
made  it  subsequent  to  the  insertion  of  the  comma,  forget- 
ting to  consider  the  comma  once  again.  Second,  Carroll's 
decision  to  excise  these  commas  was  made  in  1897,  a  full 
thirty-two  years  after  Wonderland.  Third,  the  first  editions 
of  Wonderland  and  Looking-Glass  are  inconsistent  in  this 
regard  as  well  as  his  handwritten  Under  Ground,  making 
the  inconsistent  "Wasp"  galleys — Carroll  misses  at  least 
two  places  to  splice  in  commas  similarly^" — completely 
inconsistent  as  well,  and  therefore  completely  consistent 
with  Carroll's  work.  Fourth,  Carroll  showed  carelessness 


even  in  1897,  only  beginning  such  corrections  on  page 
30  of  Wonderland,  missing  somewhere  between  eight  and 
thirteen  previous  examples.  If  he  felt  so  strongly  about 
this  decision,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  revelation  midway 
through  the  changes  in  1897,  and  if  he  went  to  "consider- 
able pains,"  he  would  have  reviewed  the  previous  pages.  In 
matter  of  fact,  in  Looking-Glass  he  only  makes  three  such 
deletions,  missing  a  total  of  twenty-two  before  the  first.'** 

This  is  not  a  rebuke  of  Selwyn  Goodacre:  He  included 
many  pro-authentic  comments  and,  perhaps  sensing  some 
weaknesses  in  the  points  above,  concluded:  "that  the 
proofs  are  genuine,"  though  reserving  some  criticisms 
about  the  handwritten  corrections.^-'  In  truth,  the  only 
real  reason  these  galleys  have  been  so  scrutinized  at  all 
is  that  they  were  sold  anonymously  and  lack  provenance. 
However,  many  valuable  items  are  auctioned  every  year 
with  anonymous  owners  for  myriad  reasons.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  lack  of  provenance  is  of  some  serious  concern; 
the  auction  catalogue  stated,  "The  Proofs  were  bought  at 
the  sale  of  the  author's  furniture,  personal  effects,  and 
library,  Oxford,  1898,  and  are  apparently  unrecorded 
and  unpublished."^"  Something  is  amiss.  The  facsimile  of 
the  auction  catalog  with  handwritten  prices  by  a  Carroll 
relative  does  not  indicate  its  sale,  and  for  those  items  not 
described,  the  bids  hardly  cover  the  value  of  such  a  choice 
item  as  the  "Wasp"  galleys.  Possibly  the  "gentleman"  sell- 
ing the  item  innocently  misrepresented  a  family  stor)'  and 
the  item  could  have  been  bought  before  the  first  item  was 
brought  to  the  block.  Jeffrey  Stern  documented  such  pre- 
auction  sales,  writing  in  Leivis  Carroll,  Bibliophile:  "More- 
over, not  only  were  papers  destroyed,  but  much  was  sold 
largely  without  record  even  prior  to  the  auction....  Large 
quantities  of  Carroll's  mantxscript  mathematical  papers 
were  also  sold  direct  (presumably  via  Wilfred)  to  Heniy  T. 
Gerrans,  fellow  of  Worcester  College  (now  in  the  Parrish 
Collection)."^'  Nonetheless,  the  diminished  provenance 
does  not  itself  imply  forgery. 

Curiously,  once  placed  in  a  proper  historical  context, 
many  of  the  suspicions  above  actually  authenticate  the 
galleys  (a  twist  was  promised).  The  claims  of  repetition  in 
"Wasp"  especially  forge  a  double-edged  sword,  supporting 
authenticity  via  a  certain  Carrollian  habit — the  weaker 
examples  becoming  stylistic  flares  and  the  stronger  ones 
habitual  preoccupations.  The  "gray"  spelling  validates  the 
document  through  common  sense;  a  forger  would  rather 
avoid  skepticism  than  invite  literary  pedantry  on  Victorian 
spelling  habits.  Likewise,  why  incite  brows  to  knit  over  the 
appearance  of  the  hand-printed  capital  "S"  amidst  cursive 
writing,  though  perfectly  ubiquitous  in  Under  Ground, 
when  the  cursive  version  must  have  been  as  easily  avail- 
able as  the  other  letters  rendered?  Similar  arguments  can 
be  drawn  for  the  "comma-before-speech"  rule,  the  "so  ... 
as"  rule,  and  poetic  scansion  rules,  concepts  that  buzz  with 
genuineness  more  than  sting  with  cautiousness. 

STORY 

To  understand  how  Looking-Glass  once  couched  the 
"Wasp"  galleys,  it  is  best  to  understand  some  preliminary 
points,  mostly  drawn  from  the  two  documents  presented 

19 


Borrowings? 

Several  scholars  have  claimed  that  the  "Wasp"  ejnsode  contains  many  borrowings  from  other  episodes  in  the  Alice 
books,  and  hence  may  be  a  forgery.  Here,  that  you  may  judge  the  strength  of  their  argument,  are  all  of  their  sug- 
'  comparisons. 


"In  my  youth,"  said  the  sage,  as  he  shook  his  grey  locks, 
"I  kept  all  my  limbs  very  supple  .  .  ."' 


When  I  was  young,  my  ringlets  waved 
And  curled  and  crinkled  on  my  head. 


"Not  with  a  mouth  as  small  as  that,"  the  Wasp  persisted.  "If 
you  was  a-fighting,  now — could  you  get  hold  of  the  other  one 
by  the  back  of  the  neck?" 

"I'm  afraid  not,"  said  Alice. 

"Well,  that's  because  your  jaws  are  too  short,"  the  Wasp  went 
on:  "but  the  top  of  your  head  is  nice  and  round."  He  took  off 
his  own  wig  as  he  spoke,  and  stretched  out  one  claw  towards 
Alice,  as  if  he  wished  to  do  the  same  for  her,  but  she  kept  out 
of  reach,  and  would  not  take  the  hint.  So  he  went  on  with  his 
criticisms. 

"Then,  your  eyes — they're  too  much  in  front,  no  doubt. 
One  would  have  done  as  well  as  two,  if  you  must  have  them  so 
close — " 


"The  face  is  what  one  goes  by,  generally,"  Alice  remarked  in 
a  thoughtful  tone. 

"That's  just  what  I  complain  of,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty.  "Your 

face  is  that  same  as  everybody  has the  two  eyes,  so " 

(marking  their  places  in  the  air  with  his  thumb)  "nose  in  the 
middle,  mouth  under.  It's  always  the  same.  Now  if  you  had  the 

two  eyes  on  the  same  side  of  the  nose,  for  instance or  the 

mouth  at  the  top that  would  be  some  help."'^ 


"En-gulph-ed,"  Alice  repeated,  dividing  the  word  in  syl- 
lables. 

"There's  no  such  word  in  the  language!"  said  the  Wasp. 
"It's  in  the  newspaper,  though,"  Alice  said  a  little  timidly. 


They  said  it  did  not  fit,  and  so 
It  made  me  look  extremely  plain: 

But  what  was  I  to  do,  you  know? 
My  ringlets  would  not  grow  again. 


"She's  all  right  again  now,"  said  the  Red  Queen.  "Do  you 
know  Languages?  What's  the  French  for  fiddle-de-dee?" 
"Fiddle-de-dee's  not  EngUsh,"  Alice  replied  gravely. 
"Who  ever  said  it  was?"  said  the  Red  Queen. ^ 


I  said  to  him,  I  said  it  plain, 

'Then  you  must  wake  them  up  again. 


"In  coming  back,''  Alice  went  on  reading,  ''they  found  a  lake 
of  treacle.  The  banks  of  the  lake  were  blue  and  white,  and  looked  like 
china.  While  coming  back,  they  had  a  sad  accident:  two  of  their  party 
were  engulphed — " 


"They  lived  on  treacle,"  said  the  Dormouse,  after  thinking  a 
minute  or  two.... 

The  Dormouse  again  took  a  minute  or  two  to  think  about  it, 
and  then  said,  "It  was  a  treacle-well."... 

"Treacle,"  said  the  Dormouse,  without  considering  at  all  this 
time.... 

'You  can  draw  water  out  of  a  water-well,"  said  the  Hatter;  "so 
I  should  think  you  could  draw  treacle  out  of  a  treacle-well — eh, 
stupid?""^ 


J^ 


in  the  first  section:  the  illustration  plan  and  the  early  draft 
of  the  table  of  contents. 

The  illustration  plan,''^  the  only  other  document 
known  to  directly  refer  to  the  missing  character,  written 
in  black  and  violet  ink,  appears  as  a  scribbled  mess  on  the 
inside  of  a  single  folded  sheet  of  paper.  The  reman  nu- 
merals for  the  chapter  numbers,  being  squeezed  in,  and 
the  horizontal  black  lines  separating  the  chapters,  being 
diverted  around  the  text,  were  obviously  added  after  the  ti- 
tles Carroll  had  given  the  illustrations.  These  observations 
and  other  minute  details  suggest  that  Carroll  created  the 
document  with  the  illustration  titles  first,  followed  by  the 
page  numbers,  the  chapter  lines,  the  chapter  numbers, 
and  the  illustration  numbers.  The  other  elements,  such 


as  the  sizes  of  the  illustrations,  were  likely  added  intermit- 
tently^'^ 

At  one  time,  evidenced  by  the  switching  of  ink  colors, 
the  plan  ended  with  the  following: 


VIII.  Battle  of  2  knights.  162 

36 

37      Knight  falling  (Qu:  more  ?)     170 


38      Knight  singing. 


Wasp 


179 


20 


And  that  is  why  they  do  it,  dear, 
Because  I  wear  a  yellow  wig. 


We  are  but  older  children,  dear. 
Who  fret  to  find  our  bedtime  near.*' 


"It  isn't  that  kind,"  Alice  hastily  explained.  "It's  to  comb  hair 
with — your  wig's  so  very  rough,  you  know." 


"The  brush  has  got  entangled  in  it!"  the  Queen  said  with  a 
sigh.  "And  I  lost  the  comb  yesterday." 

Alice  carefully  released  the  brush,  and  did  her  best  to  get 
the  hair  into  order.  "Come,  you  look  rather  better  now!"  she 
said,  after  altering  most  of  the  pins.^ 


Alice  did  not  like  having  so  many  personal  remarks  made 
on  her,  and  as  the  Wasp  had  quite  recovered  his  spirits,  and  was 
getting  very  talkative,  she  thought  she  might  safely  leave  him.  "I 
think  I  must  be  going  on  now,"  she  said.  "Good-bye." 

"Good-bye,  and  thank-ye,"  said  the  Wasp,  and  Alice  tripped 
down  the  hill  again,  quite  pleased  that  she  had  gone  back  and 
given  a  few  minutes  to  making  the  poor  old  creature  comfort- 
able. 


-^ 


"Of  course  I'll  wait,"  said  Alice:  "and  thank  you  very  much  for 
coming  so  far and  for  the  song 1  liked  it  very  much." 

"I  hope  so,"  the  Knight  said  doubtfully:  "but  you  didn't  cry 
so  much  as  I  thought  you  would." 

So  they  shook  hands,  and  then  the  Knight  rode  slowly  away 
into  the  forest.  "It  won't  take  long  to  see  him  off,  1  expect," 
Alice  said  to  herself,  as  she  stood  watching  him.... 

"I  hope  it  encouraged  him,"  she  said,  as  she  turned  to  run 
down  the  hill:  "and  now  for  the  last  brook,  and  to  be  a  Queen! 
How  grand  it  sounds!"^ 


she  heard  a  deep  sigh,  which  seemed  to  come  from  the  wood 
behind  her. 

"There's  somebody  very  unhappy  there,"  she  thought,  look- 
ing anxiously  back  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  Something  like 
a  very  old  man  (only  that  his  face  was  more  like  a  wasp)  was 
sitting  on  the  ground,  leaning  against  a  tree,  all  huddled  up 
together,  and  shivering  as  if  he  were  very  cold. 


-^ 


The  little  voice  sighed  deeply:  it  was  z;ery  unhappy,  evidently, 
and  Alice  would  have  said  something  pitying  to  comfort  it,  "if 
it  would  only  sigh  like  other  people!"  she  thovight.  But  this  was 
such  a  wonderfully  small  sigh,  that  she  wouldn't  have  heard  it 
at  all,  if  it  hadn't  come  quite  close  to  her  ear.  The  consequence 
of  this  was  that  it  tickled  her  ear  very  much,  and  quite  took  off 
her  thoughts  from  the  unhappiness  of  the  poor  little  creature. 
"I  know  you  are  a  friend, "  the  little  voice  went  on;  "a  dear  friend, 
and  an  old  friend.  And  yon  won't  hurl  nie,  though  I  (im  an  insect." 


-^ 


Something  like  a  very  old  man  (only  that  his  face  was  more 
like  a  wasp)  was  sitting  on  the  ground,  leaning  against  a  tree,  all 
huddled  up  together,  and  shivering  as  if  he  were  very  cold.... 

"They  jokes  at  one.  And  they  worrits  one.  And  then  I  gets 


a  very  old  frog,  who  was  sitting  under  a  tree,  got  up  and  hob- 
bled slowly  towards  her:  he  was  dressed  in  bright  yellow,  and 
had  enormous  boots  on.... 

"I  speaks  English,  doesn't  I?"  the  frog  went  on.... 

"Wexes  it,  you  know."'" 


Wr 


This  termination  with  a  lone  Wasp  illustiation,  lacking 
the  description  of  the  other  illustrations,  asserts  not  only 
that  Carroll  was  at  this  stage  in  his  layout,  but  that,  lack- 
ing page  and  illustration  number,  and  especially  a  chapter 
number,  he  was  at  an  impasse  in  his  destined  masterpiece. 
He  informed  Tenniel  near  the  beginning  of  April  1870 
that  the  book  seemed  too  long,  with  the  illustrator  giving 
his  reluctant  opinion  about  the  railway  scene,  and  in  June, 
his  damnation  of  "W'asp.''^^  jt  took  Carroll  at  least  three 
months  to  exterminate  the  insect  with  his  violet  ink  (first 
used  in  October  of  that  year) '''  and  another  two  to  com- 
plete the  book. 

Likely  created  around  April  1870,  the  early  draft  of 
the  table  of  contents  page  for  Looking-Glass,^^'  a  rather 


less  complicated  document,  contains  Carroll's  projected 
chapter  titles.  Ignoring  his  handwritten  corrections  for  the 
moment,  the  typeset  matter,  in  the  same  style  as  the  first 
edition,  ended  with  the  following: 


Vin.    THF.  LION  AND  THE  UNICORN 


IX.  check! 


XI.    QUEEN  ALICE 


XI.    WAKING 


21 


In  combination  with  the  illustration  plan,  which  only 
whispered  an  impasse,  this  trumpets  it.  Alone,  however, 
the  document  is  ambiguous.  Carroll  may  have  created  it 
around  the  middle  of  April  1870  when  he  was  designing 
the  sample  title  pages,'''  with  one  of  which  the  document 
is  catalogued.  If  so — and  with  Tenniel's  "Wasp"  letter  more 
than  a  month  hence — the  document  may  only  represent 
an  outline  with  Carroll  knowing  full  well  that  whatever 
episode  he  developed  in  the  empty  "X"  chapter — a  wasp, 
a  harlequin,  or  Little  Jack  Horner — it  would  be  followed 
by  "Queen  Alice,"  an  obvious  direction  for  his  novel,  and 
"Waking,"  the  even  more  obvious  conclusion.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  document  may  have  been  created  when 
the  book  was  nearly  complete  and  when  he  was  consider- 
ing Wasp's  deletion.  Carroll's  initial  violet  markings — with- 
out the  final  scribbled  out  chapter  numbers — shows,  four 
months  after  Tenniel's  letter,  that  he  still  had  an  inclina- 
tion to  retain  at  least  some  chapter  in  that  location. 

The  document  was  first  described  in  A  Handbook  of 
the  Literature  of  the  Rev.  C.  L.  Dodgson  (1931),''"  oddly  listing 
what  the  chapters  had  become — an  obvious  fact — instead 
of  their  more  intriguing  history.  The  authors  implied  that 
Carroll  had  eleven  chapters  and  that  the  "Waking"  chap- 
ter was  split  to  make  the  twelve  known  today.  To  be  more 
exact,  the  typesetting  shows  Carroll  initially  had  twelve 
chapters  and,  to  retain  that  number,  the  amalgamation  of 
two  early  chapters  triggered  the  division  of  a  later  chapter. 
Likewise,  the  deletion  of  "Wasp,"  illustrated  with  a  scrib- 
bling out  of  the  final  roman  numerals,  triggered  a  further 
split  in  the  later  chapters,  as  known  by  the  published  edi- 
tion. In  short,  the  document  thrice  over  proves  an  affinity 
for  the  number  twelve,  betraying  the  eleven-chapter  plan 
as  an  uneasy  interim. 

The  illustration  plan  and  Harvard's  contents  page 
prove  that  Tenniel's  use  of  the  word  "chapter"  for  the 
"Wasp"  episode  was  more  literal  than  once  perceived. 
The  horizontal  line  on  the  illustration  plan  separating 
the  Wasp  and  the  blank  space  in  the  contents  page  clearly 
suggest  that  the  insect  led  off  a  new  chapter,  possibly  later 
titled  "Worrity!  Worrity!"  or  "The  Wasp  in  a  Wig."  It  should 
be  noted  that  Collingwood,  who  had  at  least  one  other 
letter''^  on  the  issue,  did  not  object  to  Tenniel's  term.  But 
indeed,  as  illustrated  later,  it  may  have  been  only  a  short 
episode  of  nine  pages  and  not  some  full  chapter  that  Ten- 
niel  condemned. 

If  the  episode  opened  a  new  chapter,  the  lack  of  a 
chapter  title,  expected  on  the  first  discarded  galley  page, 
deserves  explanation.  The  truth  is  printers  did  not  as  a  mat- 
ter of  rule  begin  new  chapters  on  fresh  galley  sheets,''"  and 
the  title,  simply  appearing  anywhere  in  the  middle  of  the 
long  page,  could  have  easily  been  cut  away.  It  most  likely 
appeared  with  its  number  above  the  paragraph  beginning 
with  Alice's  words:  "I  hope  it  encouraged  him..." — a  con- 
cept in  accordance  with  Carroll's  loose  chapter  breaking 
throughout  the  novel.  Since  the  opening  of  the  Knight 
chapter  itself  refers  to  the  previous  chapter's  characters, 
the  Lion  and  the  Unicorn,  the  reference  Alice  makes  to 
the  Knight,  a  mere  "him,"  is  not  problematic.  Also,  her 


sentence  abruptly  changes  topics,  becoming  girlish  and 
flighty:  "and  now  for  the  last  brook,  and  to  be  a  Queen!" 
Whatever  the  strength  of  this  proposition,  the  illustration 
plan  and  the  contents  page  certainly  indicate  a  new  chap- 
ter, as  did  Tenniel's  letter,  and  it  is  highly  unlikely  that  Car- 
roll would  have  written  a  thirty-eight-page  chapter  when 
the  previous  chapters  did  not  exceed  twenty-five  pages. 

The  illustration  plan  indicates  some  concern  with 
keeping  the  chapters  a  uniform  length.  For  the  first  three 
chapters,  Carroll  indicates  the  number  of  pages,  circling 
the  numbers:  "24  ...  20  ...  20."  For  the  first  chapter,  Car- 
roll even  scopes  out  the  intervals  between  illustrations:  "4 
...  6...  1  ...  2  ...  3."  Since  both  sets  of  numbers  are  written 
in  violet  ink  and  the  original  page  numbers  were  in  black 
ink,  it  indicates  a  later  concern.  As  it  turns  out,  before  the 
twenty-eight-page  "It's  My  Own  Invention,"  the  chapters' 
average  length  was  a  little  more  than  twenty-two  pages, 
with  a  maximum  variation  of  no  more  than  three.  This 
is  relatively  uniform.  The  chapters  in  Wonderland  aver- 
age sixteen  pages  with  a  maximum  variation  of  two,  if  the 
shortest  chapter  of  twelve  pages  is  excluded.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  early  draft  of  the  contents  page  shows  that  the 
present  "Wool  and  Water"  chapter  was  once  two  separate 
chapters  (a  hint  of  which  may  appear  on  the  illustration 
plan  as  a  short  line  after  the  second  of  the  four  illustra- 
tions). They  were  likely  separated  with  the  paragraph 
beginning  "She  looked  at  the  Queen,  who  seemed  to  have 
suddenly  wrapped  herself  up  in  wool,""''  and  thus,  eleven 
pages  each.  However,  the  plan  does  show  that  the  chapters 
may  have  originally  been  longer,  and  in  the  end,  Carroll 
did  combine  them,  showing  some  uneasiness  about  their 
brevity.  Lastly,  the  diagonal  lines  and  their  colors  realign- 
ing the  chapter  numbers  indicate  that  Carroll  created  the 
one  chapter  that  became  "Wool  and  Water"  before  the 
Wasp's  deletion. 

The  two  documents  negate  the  idea  that  Carroll 
lengthened  the  Knight  chapter  after  excising  the  Wasp 
or  that  the  same  chapter  concluded  with  the  episode, 
making  the  chapter  a  long  thirty-eight  pages.  On  the  il- 
lustration plan,  Carroll  slated  in  black  ink  the  illustration 
for  the  "Knight  singing"  for  page  179.  After  the  deletion 
of  the  Wasp,  Carroll  slated  in  violet  ink  the  illustration 
of  the  "Old  man  on  gate,"  the  very  same  scene,  for  page 
179.  During  the  Wasp  Symposium  in  1978,  Denis  Crutch 
surmised  that  the  Knight's  song  essentially  took  the  place 
of  "Wasp."'"'^  The  illustration  plan,  with  "Knight  singing" 
before  "Wasp,"  makes  this  highly  unlikely.  Also,  Carroll  ad- 
mitted that  his  "character  of  the  White  Knight  was  meant 
to  suit  the  speaker  in  the  poem,"''^  proving  the  song's  pri- 
macy in  conception  over  that  of  the  whole  of  the  chapter. 

Though  there  are,  no  doubt,  many  scenarios  to  ex- 
plain how  Looking-Glass  once  couched  the  "Wasp"  galleys, 
two  will  be  explained  here,  one  simple  and  one  a  bit  more 
complicated.  The  simpler  explanation  is  that  the  nine-page 
episode  was  a  complete  chapter,  supported  by  the  short 
"Living  Backwards"  and  "Scented  Rushes,"  or  a  mere  nine- 
page  sketch  to  be  developed  at  a  later  time.  The  slightly 
more  complicated  scenario  explains  away  the  anomalous 


22 


nine  pages  along  with  the  textual  emendations  that  decid- 
edly do  not  lengthen  nor  strengthen  the  episode.  Since 
the  previous  chapters  averaged  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
pages,  the  "Wasp"  galleys  may  have  only  been  the  first  half 
of  a  fuller  chapter.  In  this  scenario,  once  confronted  with 
the  character's  deletion,  Carroll  tagged  the  second  half  of 
the  chapter  onto  the  following  chapter,  "Queen  Alice," 
which,  in  the  end,  became  the  longest  in  the  book,  thirty 
pages.  The  second-longest  chapter,  "It's  My  Own  Inven- 
tion," twenty-eight  pages,  received,  as  known,  one  page 
from  "Wasp."  If  so,  there  should  be  some  remnant  of  an 
old  chapter  break — like  the  remnant  somewhere  in  "Wool 
and  Water" — about  ten  to  fifteen  pages  into  the  present 
"Queen  Alice"  chapter.  One  such  possibility  occurs  before 
or  between  the  following  two  paragraphs: 

The  snoring  got  more  distinct  every  minute, 
and  sounded  more  like  a  tune:  at  last  she  could 
even  make  out  words,  and  she  listened  so  eagerly 
that,  when  the  two  great  heads  suddenly  vanished 
from  her  lap,  she  hardly  missed  them. 

She  was  standing  before  an  arched  doorway 
over  which  were  the  words  QUEEN  ALICE  in  large 
letters,  and  on  each  side  of  the  arch  there  was  a 
bell-handle;  one  was  marked  "Visitors'  Bell,"  and 
the  other  "Servants'  Bell."''^ 

Notice  how  the  words  "Queen  Alice,"  the  name  of  the 
chapter,  are  first  used  here  in  the  text,  suggesting  as  well 
the  vestige  of  some  old  chapter  break.  Also,  a  "dream  dis- 
solve"— the  inexplicable  appearance  and  disappearance 
of  people  and  things — occurs  here,  a  phenomenon  that 
breaks  half  (four  out  of  eight)  of  the  middle  chapters  in 
Looking-Glass,  or  with  the  suggested  "Wool  and  Water" 
break,  slightly  higher  (five  out  of  nine).  This  break  would 
have  given  the  ur-"Wasp"  chapter  four  illustrations  in 


twenty-five  pages  and  the  remainder  of  the  book  twenty- 
one  pages  with  three  to  seven  illustrations  (using  the 
hand-corrected  "forty-six"  used  on  one  sample  title  page'" 
and  the  fifty  the  book  eventually  became). 

A  clue  to  the  above  chapter  break  also  appears  on  the 
illustration  plan.  Carroll  may  have  indicated  the  original 
breaks  by  staggering  the  page  numbers,  either  purposely 
to  organize  his  thinking,  or  accidentally,  by  adding  the 
page  numbers  as  the  individual  galleys  arrived  in  the 
post.''*'  Pages  "184  ...  190  ...  198"  (once  ur-"Wasp")  are  set 
offfrom  pages  "201  ...  205  ...  21 1  ...  213"  (once  ur-"Queen 
Alice"),  with  pages  "214  ...  218"  (once  ur-"Waking").''"  The 
long-tailed  nines  support  the  concept.  They  are  only  used 
after  Carroll  completes  a  chapter,  happily  occupying  the 
free  space  below.  But  when  that  space  will  be  directly 
needed — after  page  "190,"  for  example — Carroll  scripts 
a  short-tailed  nine.  The  inconsistent  use  of  parentheses 
after  the  "Frog  gardener"  illustration — "(w  x  16)" — and 
after  the  "Golden  Crown  illustration — "(14  lines)" — also 
indicates  a  possible  time  break,  and  therefore  a  different 
galley  or  chapter's  delivery.  If  so,  the  "Golden  Crown"  illus- 
tration once  belonged  to  the  "Wasp"  chapter,  which  is  fact, 
and  the  "It  was  a  kitten"  illustration  once  belonged  to  the 
eleventh  and  last  chapter. 

To  conclude,  the  similarity  of  the  Knight's  departure 
and  the  Wasp's  farewell,  a  bugaboo  to  some,-"'**  does  not  ap- 
pear so  repetitive  once  separated.  In  truth,  Alice's  farewell 
to  the  Wasp  is  much  shorter  than  the  departure  of  the 
Knight,  and  certainly  not  as  touching.  Once  split  offfrom 
the  Knight  chapter,  and  possibly  lengthened  with  part  of 
the  next  chapter,  the  episode — perfectly  fine  enough  for 
Carroll  to  have  penned  but  perfectly  weak  enough  for 
Tenniel  to  have  condemned — does  not  appear  to  be  so 
jarring  as  claimed. 


Epigraph.  Lewis  Carroll,  Through  the  Look- 
ing-Glass, and  Wliat  Alice  Found  There  (Lon- 
don: Macniillan,  1872),  124. 

'  Lewis  Carroll,  "The  Wasp  in  a  Wig:  Ex- 
clusive: The  Missing  Chapter  from  Alice" 
with  an  accompanying  article  by  Morton 
Cohen,  Telegraph:  Sunday  Magazine,  Sep- 
tember 4,  1977, 12-21. 

^  Tenniel  to  Carroll,  June  1,  1870,  in  Stuart 
Dodgson  Collingwood,  The  Life  and  Letters 
of  Lewis  Carroll  (New  York:  Century,  1899), 
147-49. 

3  Tenniel  to  Carroll,  April  4,  1870,  in  Mor- 
ton N.  Cohen  and  Edward  Wakeling,  Lewis 
Carroll  and  His  Illustrators:  Collaborations 
and  Correspondence,  1865-1898  (New  York: 
Cornell  University  Press,  2003),  14. 

"*  Roger  Lancelyn  Green,  The  Story  of  Lewis 
Carroll  (New  York:  Henry  Shuman,  1949, 
rpt.  1951),  71. 

■''  Alexander  L.  Taylor,  The  White  Knight:  A 
Study  ofC.  L.  Dodgson  (Lewis  Carroll)  (Lon- 
don: Oliver  &  Boyd,  1952),  138. 

''  Derek  Hudson,  Lewis  Carroll  (London: 
Constiible,  1954),  179. 

'  Selwyn  Goodacre,  'The  Missing  "Wasp' 


Chapter — A  Myth  Exploded,"  Jabbenuocky 
7,  no.  3  (Summer  1978)  (hereafter  Sympo- 
sium): 57-58. 
^  Rodney  Engen,  Sir  John  Tenniel:  Alice's  White 
Knight  (Aldershot,  Hants,  England:  Scolar, 
1991),  90. 

^  Veronica  Hickie  and  Peter  Shaw  quoted 
in  "The  Sotheby  Sale,  and  First  Reac- 
tions— Open  Discussion"  and  Raphael 
Shaberman,  "Consideration  of  Intiuigible 
Factors,"  Symposium:  61-62,  65. 

'"  Shaberman,  "Intangible  Factors,"  65. 

"  Edward  Wakeling,  "The  Illustration  Plan 
for  Though  the  Looking-Glass,"  fahbenvocky 
21,  no.  2,  issue  78  (spring  1992):  .32. 

''^  See  note  46. 

'•*  Mark  Israel,  email  messages  to  the  author. 

''^  Lewis  Carroll,  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonder- 
land and  Through  the  Looking-Glass,  intro- 
duction and  notes  by  Hugh  Haughton 
(New  York:  Penguin  Books,  1998,  rpt. 
2003),  351. 

^^  Carroll,  "Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee" 
and  "It's  My  Own  Invention"  in  Looking- 
Glass,  75  and  174,  76  and  178,  77and  179. 


"'  Ibid.,  177-81;  Lewis  Carroll,  "Advice  from 
a  Caterpillar"  in  Alice's  Adventures  in  Won- 
derland (London:  Macniillan,  1866),  63-66. 

'^  Janis  Lull,  "The  Appliances  of  Art:  The 
Carroll-Tenniel  Collaboration  in  Through 
the  Looking-Glass"  in  Lewis  Carroll:  A  Celebra- 
tion; Essays  on  the  Occasion  of  the  150th  Anni- 
versary of  the  Birth  of  Charles  Lutwidge  Dodg- 
son, edited  by  Edward  Guiliano  (New  York: 
Clarkson  N.  Potter,  1992),  105-8.  The 
relevant  section  of  the  essay  is  presented 
in  Martin  Gardner,  The  Annotated  Alice:  The 
Definitive  Edition  (New  York:  Norton,  2000), 
2-38  n.  7. 

'**  Shaberman,  "Intangible  Factors,"  65; 
Selwyn  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion."  70. 

'^  Carroll,  "The  Mock  Turtle's  Stoiy"  in 
Wonderland,  135;  "Tweedledum  and  Twee- 
dledee" in  Looking-Glass,  76;  Lewis  Carroll, 
"The  Beaver's  Lesson"  (illustration)  in  The 
Hunting  of  the  Snark:  An  Agony  in  Eight  Fits 
(London:  Macniillan,  1876),  52;  Lewis  Car- 
roll, "Peter  and  Paul"  in  Sylvie  and  Bruno 
(London:  Macniillan,  1889),  149;  Lewis 
Carroll,  "The  Pig-Tale"  in  Sylvie  and  Bruno 
Concluded  (London:  Macmil- 


23 


Ian,  1893),  371-73;  Lewis  Carroll,  Symbolic 
Logic,  edited  with  annotations  and  an 
introduction  by  William  Warren  Bartley,  III 
(New  York:  Clarkson  N.  Potter,  Inc.,  1977), 
147-58,  180-84,  378-80,  398-99,  410. 

^"  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion,"  60;  Lewis 
Carroll,  The  Wasp  in  a  Wig:  A  "Suppressed" 
Episode  of  Through  the  Looking-Glass  and 
What  Alice  Found  There,  with  a  introduction 
and  notes  by  Martin  Gardner  (Bath:  Mac- 
millan,  1977),  40. 

^'  E.  Ward  Gilman,  ed.,  Webster's  Dictionary 
of  English  Usage  (Springfield,  Mass:  Mer- 
riam-Webster,  1989),  124.  The  work  cites  J. 
J.  Lamberts,  .4  Short  Introduction  to  English 
Usage  {New  York:  McGraw-Hill,  1972). 
Thanks  to  Mark  Israel  for  confirming 
suspicions  about  the  negative  rule. 

^'^  Carroll,  "Pig  and  Pepper"  and  "The  Mock 
Turtle's  Story"  in  Wonderland,  93  and 
143;  Carroll,  "Looking-Glass  House"  and 
"Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee"  in  Looking- 
Glass,  13  and  79. 

'^^  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion,"  60. 

24  Lewis  Carroll,  "Willow  Tree"  (1859)  in 
Three  Sunsets  and  Other  Poems  (London: 
Macmillan,  1898),  42-43;  "Humpty 
Dumpt)'"  in  Looking-Glass,  130-34;  "Matilda 
Jane"  in  Sybne  and  Bruno  Concluded,  76. 

'^^  Veronica  Hickie,  "Open  Discussion,"  61. 
Shaw  concurred  with  Hickie,  stating  "If  it 
really  purports  to  follow  the  White  Knight, 
it  is  such  a  gross  error"  (ibid.,  62). 

2*^  Carroll  to  Tenniel,  [n.  d.]  in  Collingwood, 
Life  and  Letters,  130.  See  also  note  53  in  the 
next  section. 

'^'  Carroll,  Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40. 

2^  P.  F.  Walker,  "Open  Discussion,"  62;  Gard- 
ner, Wasp  in  a  Wig,  20. 

'^^  Selwyn  Goodacre,  "Considerations  of 
Physical  Factors,"  Symposium:  73. 

•'^"  Oxford  English  Dictionary,  2nAed.  (New 
York:  Oxford  University  Press,  2002),  CD- 
ROM,  version  3.0,  s.w.  "Davyne,"  "surtout" 
and  "unveined"  respectfully. 

^'  Jeffrey  Stern,  Lewis  Carroll  Bibliophile 
(Luton,  Bedfordshire:  White  Stone  Pub- 
lishing; The  Lewis  Carroll  Society,  1997), 
17,  19  and  25. 

-'''^  Lewis  Carroll,  "Phantasmagoria"  (canto  7, 
stanza  4),  "The  Three  Voices"  (section  2, 
stanza  13)  and  "A  Double  Acrostic"  (stanza 
2)  in  Phantasmagoria  (London:  Macmillan, 
1869),  54,  99  and  110;  and  Lewis  Car- 
roll, "Four  Riddles"  (poem  3,  stanza  2)  in 
Rhyme?  and  Reason?  (London:  Macmillan, 
1883),  208;  and  Lewis  Carroll,  "You  Are 
Old  Father  William"  in  Alice's  Adventures 
under  Ground  {London:  Macmillan,  1886 
[facsimile,  first  handwritten,  1863];  re- 
print, Ann  Arbor,  Michigan:  University 
Microfilms,  1964),  55.  "Four  Riddles"  is  an 
expansion  of  "A  Double  Acrostic."  Thanks 
to  Mark  Israel  for  alerting  me  of  the  pos- 
sible use  of  "gray"  in  Phantasmagoria. 

^^  Goodacre,  "Physical  Factors,"  73. 

'^'»  Ibid.,  74. 


^^  Stanley  Godman,  "Lewis  Carroll's  Final 
Corrections  to  'Alice,'"  Times  Literary 
Supplement,  May  2,  1958,  248.  Godman  lists 
the  hand-corrections  Carroll  made  in  the 
two  Alicehooks.  Since  he  only  details  the 
three  made  for  Looking-Glass  and  one  from 
Wonderland — all  four  have  this  rule — and 
that  if  this  were  not  the  rule,  there  would 
be  hundreds  of  changes,  I  assume  the 
rules  to  be  so. 

^*'  Carroll,  Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40. 

^"^  Ibid.,  39.  The  examples  are  found  on 
galley  65:  "The  Wasp  said  "That's  a  new- 
fangled name"  and  "Alice  hastily  ran  her 
eye  down  the  paper  and  said  'No  ....'" 

•'*^  Godman,  "Final  Corrections,"  248.  The 
missing  twenty-two  is  an  estimation  made 
by  the  current  author  The  extensive  analy- 
sis accomplished  with  electronic  versions 
of  the  tales  and  facsimile  editions  is  too 
long  to  present  here. 

•"^  Goodacre,  "Physical  Factors,"  74.  Good- 
acre  also  observed  that  the  galleys  were 
numbered  ten  pages  too  early.  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  offered  as  suspicious;  the 
forger  could  have  determined  this  as  easily 
as  Goodacre  could  have  in  1976  and  as  I 
can  do  a  tad  more  easily  today  with  a  per- 
sonal computer.  The  fact  either  .suggests 
that  Carroll  added  material — confirmed 
only  partly  from  the  revised  page  numbers 
on  the  illustration  plan — or  that  the  gal- 
leys changed  size.  In  fact,  slips  dated  May 
13,  1882,  for  Carroll's  Euclid  I ,  II  (Fales 
Library,  NYU)  have  two  different  sizes.  The 
standard  Wasp  slip,  judging  from  photo- 
graphs of  the  original  pages  obtained  by 
the  present  owners,  has  a  rather  wide  top 
and  bottom  margin  (2  3/4"  and  2-1/4") 
and  a  rather  short  text  length  (12")  when 
compared  to  the  smaller  of  the  two  Euclid 
galleys  having  a  short  top  and  bottom 
margin  (3/4"  and  5/8")  and  a  long  text 
length  (15  7/8").  Hence,  with  the  galleys 
for  Looking-Glass  being  created  over  a  two- 
year  period —  see  Diaries  from  January  12, 
1869  toJanuai"y  13,  1871 — and  with  many 
other  slips  from  the  same  period  having 
considerably  longer  lengths,  there  is  no 
reason  to  assume  that  the  earlier  slips  had 
similar  dimensions. 

*"  Catalogue  of  Children 's  Books,  Drawings 
and  Juvenilia...  (London:  Sotheby  &  Co., 
1974),  18.  Sotheby  held  the  auction  on 
June  3,  1974. 

"*'  Stern,  Bihliof)hile,  iv. 

"*'  Lewis  Carroll,  [Illustration  Plan  for  Look- 
ing-Glass}, Christ  Church  Library,  Oxford. 
All  is  in  black  ink  except:  "E  =  ordered  to 
be  electrot>'ped  p.  23"  and  the  "E"  before 
each  illustration;  the  "x"  before  the  "E" 
for  each  illustration  on  the  second  page; 
"Frontispiece  of  Alice  and  Knight";  the 
circled  4,  6,  1,  2,  3  (showing  illustrations 
spread)  and  the  adjacent  vertical  writ- 
ing; the  circled  24,  20,  20  (showing  page 
counts);  all  illustration  sizes  on  page  2; 
"Sending  message  to  fish";  "(speak — can't 
you?";  the  line  crossing  out  "Knight  sing- 


ing" and  "Wasp";  everything  after  the  last 
horizontal  line  except  for  maybe  the  line 
crossing  out  the  second  "39";  the  "Lion" 
and  the  crossing  out  of  "Unicorn";  the 
crossing  out  of  "(or  else  45)"  and  "(or  else 
39)";  the  last  corrected  page  number  be- 
ginning with  chapter  2;  the  page  number 
representing  the  Jabberwock  and  begin- 
ning with  chapter  2;  some  minor  correc- 
tions on  the  illustration  sizes  for  illustra- 
tions 2,  5,  11,  12,  13,  14,  17,  18,  22.  Thanks 
to  Edward  Wakeling  for  adding  colors  to 
my  thoughts. 

^^  See  note  1 1  for  the  first  publication  of  the 
plan,  revealing  many  never-before-known 
details  about  Looking-Glass,  many  of  which 
are  largely  ignored. 

'*'*  See  notes  2  and  3. 

^^  Warren  Weaver  ,  "Ink  and  Pen  Used  by 
Lewis  CiiTToW,"  Jabbenvocky  4,  no.  1,  issue  21 
(Winter  1975):  3-4;  Lewis  Carroll,  Januar)' 
4,  1871,  Edward  Wakeling,  Lewis  Carroll's 
Diaries:  The  Private  Journals  of  Charles  Lut- 
widge  Dodgson  (Clifford,  England:  The 
Lewis  Carroll  Society,  2001),  6:139. 

4''  Lewis  Carroll,  [Preliminary  Pages  to  Look- 
ing-Glass] ,  Houghton  Library,  Harvard 
University,  Cambridge.  The  table  of 
contents  leaflet  includes  a  bastard  title 
("Looking-Glass  House  /  And  What  Alice 
Saw  There"  corrected  in  violet  ink  to 
the  final  title)  and  the  dedicatory  poem 
(corrected  in  black  and  violet  ink).  The 
corrections  for  the  contents  page  are  in 
violet  ink,  except  the  following  in  pencil: 
"Looking-Glass  House,"  the  deletion  of 
"The  Glass  Curtain,"  the  page  number  1, 
the  bracket,  the  first  three  diagonal  lines; 
and  the  following  in  black  ink:  the  diago- 
nal leading  to  the  word  "Check!"  The  first 
penciled  diagonal  is  overwritten  in  violet 
(and  "Living  Backwards"  is  crossed  out  in 
violet).  Atop  the  leaflet  in  a  single  sheet 
is  an  early  1870  title  page  with  "Through 
the  Looking-Glass  /  What  Alice  Found  There" 
corrected  in  violet  ink  to  the  final  title  and 
with  "Forty-Two"  corrected  in  violet  ink  to 
"Fort\'-Six"  illustrations.  Incidentally,  the 
missing  quotation  mark  in  the  first  edition 
for  the  final  title  of  chapter  eight — "It's  My 
Own  Invention  ["] — may  indicate  that  it 
was  a  late  change.  Thanks  to  Tom  Ford  for 
pointing  out  the  pencil  markings. 

4^  Morton  Cohen,  Leiuis  Carroll  and  the  House 
of  Macmillan  (New  York:  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Press,  1987),  85  n.  1. 

'^^  Sidney  Herbert  Williams  and  Falconer 
Madan,  A  Handbook  of  the  Literature  of  the 
Rev.  C.  L.  Dodgson  (Lewis  Carroll)  (London: 
Milford,  1931),  236. 

'^^  Collingwood,  Life  and  Letters,  146.  Colling- 
wood quotes  Tenniel  as  saying  "a  wasp  in  a 
wig  is  altogether  beyond  the  appliances  of 
art,"  a  comment  not  found  in  the  facsimile 
letter,  though  it  could  be  from  the  side  not 
reproduced. 

■^^  Carroll  is  documented  as  sending  the  first 
chapter  of  Looking-Glass  separately 


24 


{Diary,  yanudij  12,  1869),  which  would 
have  forced  a  page  break  if  set  before 
other  chapters  were  received.  However,  it 
is  not  known  how  he  proceeded  beyond 
this  point.  For  the  lack  of  page  breaks  on 
galleys  between  chapters,  see  J.  M.  Barrie, 
The  Greenwood  Hat,  galley  proofs,  c.  19.S7, 
The  Berg  Collection,  The  New  York  Pub- 
lic Library.  Also,  see  Carroll  to  Gertrude 
Thomson,  November  12,  1897,  in  Cohen 
and  Wakeling,  Lewis  Carroll  and  His  Illustra- 
tors, 313.  Carroll  writes  "Printer's  proofs 
are  always  done  on  thin  cheap  paper,  and 
with  no  'bringing-up"  of  pictures,  and 
come  out  anyhow"  (Carroll's  italics). 

■'''  Carroll,  "Wool  and  Water"  in  Looking-Glass, 
101. 

•'''^  Denis  C-rutch,  "A  Possible  Reconstruction" 
and  "Post  Script,"  Symposium:  77-78,  80. 

^^  Carroll  to  Reginald  Brimleyjohnson, 
May  16,  1893,  Literature2,  no.  9  (March  5, 
1898):  269.  Carroll  wrote,  replying  to  John- 
son, who  was  editing  Samuel  Butler  for  a 
series  on  the  Aldine  Poets:  "I  have  certainly 
no  consciousness  of  having  borrowed  the 
idea  of  the  inventions  of  the  W^ite  Knight 
from  anything  in  'Hudibras'....  The  char- 
acter of  the  White  Knight  was  meant  to 
suit  the  speaker  in  the  poem." 

•'''*  Carroll,  "Queen  Alice"  in  Looking-Glass, 
199. 


''■'  Carroll,  [Preliminary  Pages  to  Looking- 
Glass]  . 

'"''  In  his  diary  enti7  for  January  12,  1869, 
Carroll  showed  signs  of  working  chapter  by 
chapter:  "Finished  and  sent  off  to  Macmil- 
lan  the  1st  chapter...." 

^"^  Ur-"Waking,"  judging  from  Harvard's  con- 
tents page,  indeed  consisted  of  the  present 
last  three  chapters. 

•''*^  See  note  25. 

Sidebar: 

'  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion,"  60;  Carroll, 
Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40;  (Carroll,  "Advice  from  a 
Caterpillar"  in  Wonderland,  64. 

-  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion,"  60;  Car- 
roll, Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40;  Carroll,  "Humpty 
Dumpty"  in  Looking-Glass,  135-36. 

■'  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion,"  60;  Carroll, 
Wasp  in  a  Wig,  39;  Carroll,  "Queen  Alice" 
in  Looking-Glass,  193. 

^  Michael  Orlove,  "Open  Discussion," 
61;  Carroll,  Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40;  Carroll, 
"Humpty  Dumpty"  in  Looking-Glass,  133. 

'  Brian  Sibley,  "For  Starters — A  'Suppressed' 
Course  from  Queen  Alice's  Dinner-Party," 
Symposium:  67;  Carroll,  Wasp  in  a  Wig,  39; 
Carroll,  "A  Mad  Tea-Party"  in  Wonderland, 
106-8.  A  mention  of  treacle  is  also  found 
in  "Who  Stole  the  Tarts?"  in  Wonderland, 
174.  Sibley  may  also  be  referring  to  the 
rhyme  in  "Queen  Alice"  in  Looking-Glass, 
203.  "Then  fill  up  the  glasses  with  treacle 


and  ink,  /  Or  anything  else  that  is  pleasant 
to  drink...." 

''  Orlove  "Open  Discussion,"  61;  Ciarroll, 
Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40;  Carroll,  the  prefatory 
poem  in  Looking-Glass. 

^  Sibley,  "For  Starters,"  68;  Carroll,  Wasp  in  a 
Wig,  40;  Carroll,  "Wool  and  Water"  in  Look- 
ing-Glass, 93-94. 

^  Goodacre,  "Open  Discussion,"  60;  (>arroll. 
Wasp  in  a  Wig,  40;  Carroll,  "It's  My  Own 
Invendon"  in  Looking-Glass,  182-83. 

■'  Gardner,  Wasp  in  a  Wig,  20;  Carroll,  Wasp 
in  a  Wig,  38;  "Looking-Glass  Insects"  in 
Looking-Glass,  52-53.  Gardner  credits  Peter 
Heath  with  this  view. 
'"  Gardner,  Wasp  in  a  Wig,  20;  Carroll,  Wasp 
in  a  Wig,  38-39;  "Queen  Alice"  in  Looking- 
Glass,  200  and  202.  This  is  another  point 
from  Peter  Heath,  who  also  noted  two  pre- 
vious curiosities:  Humpty  Dumpty 's  face 
dialog  and  the  White  Queen's  bad  hair  day 
in  chapter  5. 


I'he  Illustration  /^/a« /or Through  the  Looking- 
Glass  is  reprinted  with  the  kind  permission  of  the 
Governing  Body  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

The  early  draft  oj  the  Table  of  Contents  for 
Through  the  Looking-Glass  is  printed  by  permis- 
sion of  the  Houghton  Library,  Harvard  University. 


25 


-^3^ 


Ihe  Qag  Writer 


Clare  Imholtz 


^^ 


M  round  1921,  Wanda  Gag,  the  well-known  Ameri- 
can children's  author  and  graphic  artist,  wrote 
and  drew  a  short  comic-strip-style  parody  called 
Alice  in  Blunderland — Part  I — Through  the  Good-Looking 
Glass.  Unseen  for  some  70  years,  the  parody — one  panel 
of  it — finally  surfaced  in  a  1994  book  about  Carroll  by 
Japanese  author  Yuko  Katsura.  Curiosity  led  me  to  write 
to  both  Katsura  and  Gag  scholar  Karen  Nelson  Hoyle.  I 
was  never  able  to  find  out  how  Blunderland  made  its  way 
to  Japan,  but  I  had  more  success  in  Gag's  home  state:  Dr. 
Hoyle,  the  curator  of  the  Kerlan  Collection  of  Children's 


Alice  was  in  a  big  room  ivilli  a  beautiful 
mirror  in  it.  "What  a  good-looking  glass!"  she 
exclaimed,  "and  since  I'm  Alice,  I  suppose  1 
must  go  through  it.  "  She  climbed  up  on  the 
mantle  piece  and  took  a  big  step.  She  went 
through  easily  enough,  since  it  was  not  a 
glass  at  all,  but  a  silvery  curtain  with  reflec- 
tions painted  on  it. 


Literature  at  the  University  of  Minnesota,  was  able  to  lo- 
cate the  original  parody  and  to  provide  me  with  a  copy. 

Gag  was  born  in  New  Ulm,  Minnesota,  in  1893.  The 
eldest  of  seven,  forced  to  make  her  own  way  in  life  due  to 
her  father's  early  death  and  her  mother's  alcoholism,  she 
won  scholarships  to  art  schools  in  Minneapolis  and  then 
New  York.  Her  parents  were  immigrants  from  Bohemia, 
but  in  New  York  Gag  became  a  true  Bohemian  in  the  cul- 
tural sense  of  the  word.  She  believed  in  free  love  and  lived 
for  her  art.  Although  she  struggled  economically  for  many 
years,  Gag  eventually  achieved  substantial  success.  Today 
she  is  remembered  mostly  for  her  children's  books,  the 
most  popular  of  which,  Millions  of  Cats,  can  still  be  found 
in  bookstores,  having  been  continuously  in  print  since  its 
publication  in  1928. 


Alice  was  so  surprised  that  she  forgot  to  look  xohere  she 
was  going.  Crash!  Splinter!  Splash!  She  had  stepped 
right  into  a  teafjarty.  The  peanut-butter  sandiviches 
flew  away  —  the  fragments  of  broken  dishes  gathered 
themseliies  together  and  marched  off  in  a  huff —  and 
the  tea  flowed  away  in  little  rivulets.  "There  should  be  a 
dormouse  and  a  hare  and  a  hatter  around  somewhere,  " 
said  Alice,  looking  at  the  wreck — in  dismay. 


Oh,  here's  one  of  them!"  she  added,  as  she  spied  a 
frightened-looking  rabbit  on  the  floor  "Are  you  the 
March  Hare?"  "No,  "  wailed  the  poor  thing.  "I'm 
the  Welsh  Rabbit!"  "Don't you  mean  Rarebit?" 
asked  Alice.  But  the  r(d)bit  looked  so  offended  that 
Alice  quickly  changed  the  subject.  "And  where  is 
the  Dormouse  ?  "  she  asked. 


26 


//  s  the  Sad  Hatter,  "  explained  the  WrLsli 
Rabbit,  "You  kicked  him  of/his  chair  as 
you  came  douni.  "At  this  point  the  Hatter 
crawled  out  of  a  corner.  "Too  bad,  too  bad, 
he  said,  looking  tearfully  at  his  watch. 
"Couldn  't  you  have  stepped  on  us  a  few 
minutes  later?  I  was  about  to  do  a  trick!" 
"I'm  very  sony  I  made  such  a  blunder,  " 
said  Alice,  someivhat  ashamed. 


.4  sb'epy  voice  came  from  under  the  table.  ''Here  I  am,  "  // 
said.  Alice pulkd  the  table  cloth  aside.  "Oh,  "she  said, 
"I  hardly  expected  you  to  look  so  much  like  furniture!" 
"Why  not?  Fm  a  genuine  door-mouse  —  a  front-door 
mouse.  My  brother  is  a  back-door  mouse,  my  cousins  are 
cellar-door  mice,  my  uncle  — "  But  he  was  interrupted  by 
a  loud  III  ail. 


Bliinderlnnd  is  one  of  many  short  works  that  Gag 
produced  in  the  early  1920s  while  trying  to  keep  body 
and  soul  together  in  New  York  City.  According  to  Karen 
Hoyle's  book-length  study,'  Gag's  lover,  Earle  Humphreys, 
tried  unsuccessfully  to  sell  Blunderland  to  Woman's  Home 
Companion  for  its  "Jolly  Juniors"  page.  Gag  had  more 
success  with  "Wanda's  Wonderland,"  a  series  of  illustrated 
stories  accompanied  by  crossword  puzzles,  which  were  syn- 
dicated to  several  newspapers.  However,  despite  the  title 
these  pieces  were  not  Carrollian  in  natiue. 

Alice  in  Blunderland — Part  I — Through  the  Good-Look- 
ing  Glass  consists  of  a  hand-lettered  title  page  and  six 
small  drawings  with  typewritten  text  pasted  beneath  each. 
Blunderland  conflates  the  two  Alice  books:  her  Alice 
climbs  through  a  silvery  curtain/looking  glass  and  finds 


"Oh,  as  to  that,  "  ivept  the  Sad  Hatter,  "this 
is  Blunderland,  and  it  was  bound  to  hap- 
pen sometime.  Only  my  trick  was  due  at  four 
o'clock  to-day,  and  noiv  it's  too  late,  ft  only 
ivorks  once  a  month,  you  knoxv.  "  "Never 
mind,  "  encouraged  tfw  rabbit.  "Time flies, 
and  next  month  will  be  here  in  forty  winks!" 
"And  forty  winks,  " yaivned  the  Door-mouse, 
"means  a  cozy  nap.  Let's  snooze  until  it  gets 
here." 


herself  at  the  Tea  Party  where  she  meets  the  Sad  Hatter, 
the  Welsh  Rabbit,  and  the  Door-Mouse.  The  parody  is  only 
mildlv  amusing.  Gag's  main  gag  is  that  Alice  has  a  post- 
modern awareness  of  her  predecessor's  exploits.  Nonethe- 
less, it's  always  nice  to  see  Alice  in  the  hands  of  another 
famous  illustrator,  even  briefly.  The  Sad  Tea  Party  reminds 
me  of  the  Tea  Part)'  in  Lisbeth  Zwerger's  Alice.  Presumably, 
there  was  never  a  Part  II  to  Blunderland.  If  there  had  been, 
I  imagine  Alice  might  have  fallen  down  the  rabbit  hole 
and  landed  right  on  the  Tweedles. 


Illustrations  and  captions  reprinted  with  the  permission  of  the 
Wanda  Gag  estate  in  the  person  of  her  nepheio,  Mr  Gary  Harm. 


'  Karen  Nelson  Hoyle,  Wanda  Gag  (New  York:  Twayne  Publishers, 
1994).  Most  of  the  biographical  details  are  drawn  from  this  work. 


27 


First,  Congrats  on  the  new  Knight 
Letter.  I  just  received  my  copy  and  it's 
gorgeous — even  more  of  a  pleasure  to 
read  than  usual,  with  all  the  elegant 
and  practical  visual  enhancements. 
Attractive,  playful  and  clear  all  at  the 
same  time — -just  the  right  approach  in 
my  book.  Well  done,  and  my  compli- 
ments to  you,  the  designer,  and  all 
involved  in  making  it  happen. 

Andreiv  Sellon 

Brooklyn,  New  York 


The  only  problem  I  have  with  the 
new  issue  is  that  people  will  not  be 
inclined  to  talk  about  a  "Couple  of 
Things  Too  Many,"  read  or  not  (if 
I  may),  but  of  one  thing:  Andrew 
Ogus's  new  layout  and  design.  Write 
a  letter  to  your  feet,  Mark,  in  our  eyes 
you  are  "opening  out  like  the  largest 
telescope  that  ever  was!"  Congratula- 
tions! 

Matthew  Demakos 

Madison,  NJ 


The  newest  issue  of  the  Knight  Letter 
looks  very  much  like  a  journal!  Under 
your  editorship,  the  publication  has 
become  quite  professional  and  a 
desirable  vehicle  for  scholars  to  write 
articles  on  a  wide  variety  of  Carroll- 
connected  topics. 

Fran  Abeles 

Union,  NJ 


leaves  ]:koqj 
The  Deaneny  GaKden 


Herewith  adding  my  voice  to  the 
admiring  throngs:  Knight  Letter  7 1 
looks  fabu!!!!!  Our  little  newsletter 
is  all  grown  up  and  has  become  a 
magazine!  It  is  so  readable  and  easy 
to  navigate  and  the  graphics  are  per- 
fect. It's  fun  and  professional  but  not 
slickly  commercial  or  bland — still  very 
suitable  to  us  and  with  a  high  niftiness 
factor.  Not  to  mention  that  the  arti- 
cles and  news  were  all  very  interesting 
as  well!  I  would  think  many  members 
who  had  never  been  much  involved  or 
interested  will  be  drawn  in.  Mazel  tov! 

Stephanie  Lovett 

Winston-Salem,  NC 


I  think  the  new  Knight  Letter  format 
is  handsome.  I  like  using  the  titles  of 
the  family  magazines,  and  I  like  the 
photographs.  One  can  hardly  say  that 
the  use  of  photographs  violates  the 
spirit  of  this  Victorian  subject.  Best 
wishes, 

Gary  Brockman 

Madison,  CT 


What  a  gorgeous  new  look  of  the 
Knight  Letter^.  My  congratulations  to 
you!  Do  congratulate  Andrew  Ogus 
and  Matt  Demakos  also  on  my  behalf. 

Nina  Demourova 

Moscow 


I  wanted  to  write  and  tell  you  how 
much  I  liked  the  new  format  of  Knight 
Letter.  The  new  layout  makes  it  easier 
to  read  and  there  is  a  nice  mix  of  news 
and  articles.  Congratulations! 

Dayna  McCausland 

The  Lewis  Carroll  Society 
of  Canada 

Erin,  Ontario,  Canada 


M 

The  new  Knight  Letter  x?,  very  good  ...  a 
nice  style  and  an  impressive  mixture 
of  content.  Well  done  to  you  and  your 
team. 

Mark  Richards 

The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  (UK) 

London 


Issue  71  oi  Knight  Letter  xs  an  unusu- 
ally heady  feast  of  articles  bursting 
with  ideas,  discoveries  and  illumina- 
tions. All  of  them  enriched  me,  but 
I'll  limit  my  comments  to  the  two 
that  reveal  heretofore  unguessed-at 
patterns  connecting  familiar  Carroll 
poems  with  the  real  world.  Though 
I  doubt  that  either  pattern  was  in- 
tended by  Carroll,  I  think  he  would 
have  been  delighted  by  both  of  them, 
and  I  admire  the  minds  capable  of 
constructing  them,  like  "found  art," 
from  previously  unlinked  curiosities 
of  the  Victorian  world. 


28 


"The  Incorruptible  Crown":  By  the 

simple  device  of  reversing  the  letters 
of  SNARK,  Kate  Lyon  introduces  us  to 
the  somber  and  touching  social  his- 
tory of  chaplets  and  dying  youth,  the 
deep  classical  and  Victorian  backdrop 
of  the  deathbed  attendance  from 
which  Dodgson  was  taking  a  break 
when  the  Snark  entered  his  thoughts. 
It  reminds  me  of  the  medieval  Chris- 
tians' realization  that  when  the  He- 
brew and  Greek  scriptures  were  both 
translated  into  Latin,  the  F.va  with 
which  the  serpent  could  be  supposed 
to  have  hailed  Eve  was  reversed  by 
the  AveWxih  which  Gabriel  addressed 
Mary  at  the  Annunciation. 

This  EVA- AVE  link  could  be  seen  as 
the  hinge  joining  two  symmetrically 
contrasting  patterns  of  Fall  and  Re- 
demption. The  serpent's  tempting  the 
First  Eve  to  disobedience  was  coun- 
tered by  the  angel's  guiding  the  Sec- 
ond Eve  to  obedience.  In  the  gardens 
of  Eden  and  Gethsemane  the  First 
Adam  and  Second  Adam  respectively 
yielded  to  or  overcame  temptation.  By 
means  of  one  tree  came  sin;  by  means 
of  another  came  salvation.  And  on 
and  on.  Though  but  an  accident  of 
Latin  spelling,  the  eva-ave  symmetry, 
once  seen,  evokes  an  organizing  struc- 
ture difficult  to  forget.  To  me,  the 
SNARK-KRANS  symmetry  is  like  that. 

"On  aWalrus  Train  of  Thought":  Lively 
minds  cannot  always  resist  outwitting 
wit  itself.  We  all  know  that  the  joke 
of  the  Hatter's  riddle  is  that  there  is 
no  answer.  But  the  joke  was  hardly  in 
print  before  readers — and  author — 
were  contriving  answers,  some  of 
them  gems.  Matthew  Demakos  seems 
to  have  met  a  challenge  exponentially 
greater,  answering  the  implied  riddle 
"Why  are  shoes  like  ships — as  well  as 
like  sealing-wax,  cabbages,  kings,  the 
sea,  the  word  hot,  pigs  and  wings? 

Of  course,  the  joke  in  the  "time 
has  come"  stanza  of  "The  Walrus  and 
the  Carpenter"  is  that  the  Walrus's 
agendum  comprises  perversely  un- 
linkable  items.  So  finding  a  common 
term  for  all  of  them  surely  demanded 
uncommon  savvy  and  labor  and  luck. 
(The  joke  of  suggesting  a  string  of 
arbitrary  conversational  topics  was 
repeated  at  epic  length  by  Cole  Por- 
ter in  the  tongue-testing  patter  song, 
"Let's  Not  Talk  About  Love,"  which 


he  wrote  for  Eve  Arden  and  Danny 
Kaye,  in  the  1941  Broadway  show  LeVs 
Face  It.  The  dozens  of  suggested  topics 
range  from  "Walkiiries"  to  "verbos- 
ity," with  such  issues  as  "why  chickens 
cross  roads,"  the  "synonymy  of  free- 
dom and  autonomy"  and  Garbo's 
gunboat  shoe  size  along  the  way.) 

"On  a  Walrus  Train  of  Thought"  is 
a  thrilling  excursion.  If  others  have 
ventured  on  the  same  quest,  I  can't 
imagine  that  anyone  has  done  so  with 
Demakos'  ingenuity  and  assiduity,  his 
scholarship,  linguistic  facility,  fearless- 
ness and  infectious  enthusiasm.  While 
reading,  I  marveled  at  the  range  of 
arcane  subjects  he  explored,  and  I  en- 
joyed frequent  frissons  at  the  singular 
coincidences  and  unexpected  paral- 
lels he  uncovered.  He  seemed  to  treat 
all  of  literature,  culture  and  nature  as 
a  cryptic  crossword  puzzle  he  could 
solve.  It  is  as  though  he  traced  the 
trail  of  a  red  clew  through  a  labyrinth 
that  no  one  else  had  guessed  existed. 

Awed  by  this  feat,  I  would  never 
cavil  if  some  of  the  connections  seem 
strained  or  tenuous.  Just  how  far  one 
can  skate  out  on  the  thinning  ice  is 
the  measure  of  this  kind  of  intellec- 
tual game.  My  reservations  are  not 
with  the  treasures  and  trifles  Demakos 
has  assembled  for  our  bedazzlement 
but  with  two  of  his  arguments  which  I 
find  unconvincing  and  unnecessary: 

The  Chapter-Heading  Argument  Yes, 
there  is  a  typographic  resemblance 
between  the  cabbages-and-kings 
list  and  the  dash-stitched  topical 
synopses  at  the  heads  of  chapters 
in  Victorian  books.  Surely  I'm  not 
the  only  reader  who  responded  to 
Demakos'  observing  this  by  thinking, 
"Of  course!" 

The  likeness,  however,  is  limited. 
Demakos'  citation  from  Arctic  Explora- 
tions is  a  superb  model  of  a  typical 
synopsis.  In  each  topic  heading  the 
initial  word  and  all  nouns  are  capital- 
ized. Headings  are  separated  by  long 
dashes  rather  than  conjunctions. 
Yet  Carroll  does  not  capitalize  the 
Walrus's  topics  as  if  they  were  head- 
ings. The  Walrus  introduces  five  of  his 
seven  topics  by  the  conjunction  and, 
precisely  as  if  he  were  improvising  a 
spoken  list.  In  fact,  nothing  in  the  for- 
mat of  the  Walrus's  famous  sentence 


suggests  a  chapter  synopsis — save  the 
long  dashes. 

And  what  of  them?  Though  liberal 
dashing  was  undeniably  standard  in 
many  Victorian  chapter  headings,  it 
was  also  common  in  all  the  contem- 
porary literary  forms  pertinent  to 
the  Walrus's  versified  speech:  poetry, 
dialog  and  serial  description  (or  lists). 

The  nineteenth  century  was  so  tol- 
erant of  this  punctuation  that  writers 
feeling  too  lazy  to  wrestle  with  syntax 
could  often  get  away  with  simply 
stapling  non  sequiturs  together  with 
dashes.  Better  writers  inserted  dashes 
to  dramatize  patterns  of  spontaneous 
thought  and  speech.  Even  descrip- 
tions and  lists  came  to  life  when  this 
device  was  used  to  indicate  the  hesita- 
tions and  natural  pauses  of  a  narra- 
tor calling  to  mind  the  next  word  or 
detail. 

I  found  it  easier  to  turn  up  exam- 
ples than  I  expected.  The  first  Vic- 
torian novel  I  snatched  from  a  shelf 
was  Elizabeth  Gaskell's  1866  Wives 
and  Daughters.  I  have  never  read  Mrs. 
Gaskell's  fiction  but,  in  a  quick  riffle 
through  the  1969  Penguin  edition, 
numerous  dashed  passages  caught 
my  eve.  The  most  succinct  instance  is 
this  speech  on  page  528:  "'It  must  be 
horrible — I  think  I'm  very  brave — but 
I  don't  think  I  could  have — could 
have  accepted  even  Roger,  with  a 
half-cancelled  engagement  hanging 
over  me.'"  Handy  evidence  that  Car- 
roll was  adept  at  exactly  this  trick  of 
punctuating  conversation  is  the  sec- 
ond paragraph  of  Wonderland,  chapter 
ten.  In  the  first  volume  of  poetry  I 
let  fall  open — a  thin  volume  of  Poe's 
verse — the  second  poem  I  looked  at 
("Coliseum,"  1833)  offered  this  W^al- 
rus-presaging  passage: 

But  stay!  these  walls — these  ivy- 
clad  arcades — 
These  mouldering  plinths — these 

sad  and  blackened  shafts — 
These  vague  entablatures — this 

crimibling  frieze — 
These  shattered  cornices — this 

wreck — this  ruin — 
These  stones — alas!  these  grey 

stones — are  they  all — 
All  of  the  famed,  and  the  colossal 

left 
By  the  corrosive  Hours  to  Fate 

and  me? 

29 


As  I  don't  understand  why  De- 
makos  thinks  the  Oysters'  use  of  the 
singular  chat  confirms  Carroll's  chap- 
ter-heading intentions,  I  can't  dispute 
it.  (I  won't  even  ask  how  the  Oysters 
could  know  the  Walrus  was  talking 
in  dashes,  as  elsewhere  Demakos  has 
the  Oysters  hearing  the  dashes  only 
as  thought-provoking  pauses.)  But  in 
my  experience  speakers  of  idiomatic 
English  would  no  more  refer  to  a 
seven-topic  conversation  as  chats  than 
they  would  refer  to  a  seven-course 
dinner  as  meals. 

The  "Randomness" Argument  Suppose 
that  Carroll  did  not  have  the  word  red 
in  mind  when  selecting  the  Walrus's 
proposed  talking  points.  How  likely 
is  it  that  red  might  be  connected  to 
those  points  purely  by  accident? 

Well,  think  of  ravens  and  writing- 
desks,  which  at  first  seemed  to  have 
nothing  in  common,  then  only  a  few 
things  (such  as  quills  and  bills),  and 
then  so  many  things  that  entire  books 
have  been  written  on  the  subject. 
The  vast  and  expanding  vocabulary 
of  English  is  networked  with  so  many 
crisscrossing  connections  that  lexicog- 
raphers grow  faint  trying  to  record 
all  the  relations  and  distinct  uses  of 
even  the  simplest  words.  Therefore 
we  would  predict  that  given  any 
two  terms  in  the  W^alrus's  list,  there 
should  be  so  many  connections  that 
a  few  would  come  readily  to  mind, 
and  even  offer  opportunities  for  wit. 
(How  are  shoes  like  ships?  Both  travel 
with  their  bows  foremost.  How  are  ships 
like  sealing-wax?  Crests  raise  ships  and 
are  raised  in  sealing-ivax.  How  is  sealing- 
wax  like  cabbages?  Both  contain  (hold 
in/include)  leaves.  How  are  cabbages 
like  kings?  Both  may  be  called  Cole;  both 
may  lose  their  heads,  etc.)  For  most 
pairs,  as  for  the  pair  in  the  Hatter's 
riddle,  new  answers  could  probably 
still  be  found  even  after  fourteen 
decades  of  discoveries. 

But  what  about  linking  three  of  the 
terms?  Though  the  field  of  possible 
connections  would  be  significantly 
smaller  than  for  two,  and  significantly 
harder  to  find,  and  significantly  less 
susceptible  to  wordplay,  we  could 
expect  there  to  be  such  a  field,  and 
possibly  an  inexhaustible  one.  And  so 
the  trend  would  continue  as  we  at- 


30 


tempted  to  link  four  terms,  or  five,  or 
six,  or — in  Demakos's  case — nine! 

His  achievement  staggers  me.  Yet 
there  is  no  reason  to  think  that,  given 
enough  time  and  reference  books, 
a  clever  (and  extremely  long-lived) 
scholar  could  not  eventually  identify 
a  verbal  hub  with  spokes  radiating  to 
all  the  terms  in  the  Walrus's  list.  In 
fact,  considering  the  multitudinous 
ties  among  English  words,  it  would  be 
surprising  were  it  otherwise.  It  would 
also  be  surprising  if  the  word  red  were 
the  only  connection  that  could  ever 
be  found.  Demakos'  inventive  sce- 
nario involving  walrus-hunts  shows 
that  the  connection  need  not  even 
be  a  single  word.  Perhaps  some  illu- 
minated medieval  manuscript  of  the 
book  of  Revelation  will  be  discovered 
to  sport  in  its  margins  images  of  an 
apocalyptic  wax  seal's  being  broken, 
a  wracked  ship  atilt  in  a  boiling  sea, 
a  starving  king  trading  a  golden  shoe 
for  a  withered  cabbage — and  winged, 
tusked,  fiery-eyed  boars  dragging  the 
damned  into  the  mouth  of  hell.  Who 
knows  what  awaits  the  seeking  eye? 

I  have  approached  this  step  by  step 
to  make  an  important  point:  Given 
enough  variables  with  elements  in 
common,  and  enough  shuffling  of 
those  variables,  coincidences  are 
inevitable.  Any  given  coincidence 
may  be  jaw-droppingly  rare,  though 
no  less  a  coincidence  for  all  that.  Yet 
Demakos  appears  to  think  (and  I  trust 
he  will  forgive  me  if  I've  misunder- 
stood him)  that  what  is  unlikely  can- 
not also  be  what  he  calls  "random." 
True  randomness  is  counterintuitive. 
Select  the  non-random  sequence  or 
sequences  of  dice  faces  from  the  fol- 
lowing: 3261545,  5526141,  1111111, 
3415434,  6543211,  2541443.  As 
startling  as  it  may  be  to  us  non-stat- 
isticians, there  is  no  way  to  tell  from 
the  information  given  which,  if  any, 
series  were  randomly  produced.  Each 
of  these  sequences  is  exactly  as  likely 
to  be  rolled  as  any  other.  Though 
1111111  comes  up  with  impressive 
rarity  (once  in  every  279,936  rolls), 
it  is  the  same  impressive  rarity  with 
which  3415434 — or  any  order  of  seven 
dice — can  be  expected  to  appear. 

We  commonly  mislabel  patterns  as 
"random"  if  they  are  meaningless  to 
us  and  "nonrandom"  if  we  can  read 


a  meaning  into  them.  Since  most 
possible  patterns  are  gibberish,  and 
to  us  interchangeable,  we  consider 
them  qualitatively  different  from 
sequences  that  make  sense  to  us.  But 
they  are  not.  Any  given  meaningless 
pattern  is  exactly  as  likely  or  unlikely 
to  occur  by  chance  alone  as  any  given 
meaningful  pattern  of  the  same  units. 
The  laws  of  probability  make  no  dis- 
tinction between  walrus  and  urslaw. 
The  accidental  spelling  of  red^Nith. 
three  blindly  drawn  anagram  tiles  is 
indistinguishable  from  the  same  word 
intentionally  spelled.  Hence,  the  only 
way  to  know  if  a  certain  sequence  is 
random  or  nonrandom  is  to  know 
how  it  was  generated.  The  only  way 
we  could  know  if  Carroll  intended  the 
Walrus's  list  to  be  connected  to  the 
term  red  is  by  some  credible  record  of 
his  saying  so.  Even  evidence  that  this 
is  the  kind  of  literary  hide-and-seek 
he  committed  or  toyed  with  elsewhere 
would  make  it  more  plausible. 

However,  this  is  not  the  sort  of 
evidence  Demakos  presents.  To  prove 
that  the  Walrus's  nine  words  are  not 
just  accidentally  among  the  "thou- 
sands" of  words  he  estimates  are 
modified  by  red,  Demakos  selects  nine 
substantive  nouns  (why,  when  hot  is 
not  a  noun?)  from  scattered  works  of 
Dickens — and  shows  that  they  do  not 
combine  with  the  word  red.  This  is  like 
determining  the  randomness  of  one 
poker  hand  by  dealing  a  second  hand 
from  another  deck,  then  comparing 
their  properties.  The  second  hand  is 
utterly  independent  from,  and  can 
tell  us  nothing  about  the  genesis  of, 
the  first  hand.  I'm  guessing  that  what 
Demakos  was  after  was  a  sense  of  just 
how  likely  or  unlikely  the  red  connec- 
tion is.  But  no  single  test  could  pro- 
vide that. 

The  study  of  probabilities  began 
when  mathematicians  painstakingly 
enumerated  every  possible  permuta- 
tion of  dice-roll,  coin-flip,  card-deal — 
then  tabulated  the  results.  The  equiv- 
alent investigation  in  this  case  might 
begin  with  every  nine-word  set  of 
consecutively  appearing  nouns  (and 
adjectives?)  in  all  of  Carroll's  works. 
Then  we  would  assign  someone  as 
tirelessly  resourceful  as  Matt  Demakos 
to  score  each  set  for  the  number  of  its 
words  (0-9)  that  con- 


nect,  however  remotely,  to  the  word 
red.  (With  moon,  sun,  sea,  sand,  cloud, 
bird,  xualrus,  carpenter  a.nd  hand,  to 
take  nearby  samples,  the  score  might 
be  high.)  But  why  only  red?  It  hap- 
pens to  be  the  first  word  Demakos 
unearthed  connected  to  the  entire 
Walrus's  list,  but  he  presumably  did 
not  set  out  with  that  word  or  color  in 
mind.  So  for  each  nine-word  set  we 
want  to  scour  the  entire  vocabulary  of 
the  English  language  to  find  the  word 
or  phrase  that  connects  to  the  most 
words  in  that  set. 

Were  this  Herculean  enterprise 
ever  accomplished,  we  would  know  in 
what  percentage  of  Carrollian  nine- 
word  sets  all  nine  words  related  to 
a  common  word  or  term.  We  would 
even  know  how  many  of  those  com- 
mon words  happened  to  be  red.  Then, 
and  only  then,  could  we  have  an  accu- 
rate sense  of  how  unusual,  statistically, 
Demakos'  discovery  actually  is.  But 
two  things  would  remain  unchanged: 
We  would  still  not  know  whether 
Carroll  intended  the  red  connection, 
and  we  would  still  be  charmed  and 
astonished  by  Demakos'  remarkable 
tour  de  force. 

Gary  Brockman 

Madison,  CT 


Somewhat  reluctantly  I  feel  I  must 
take  issue  with  Edward  Wakeling's 
commentary  notes  to  my  exploratory 
article,  "X  Markse  the  Spot,"  in  the 
last  Knight  Letter.  I  could  also  take 
this  opportunity  to  distance  myself 
from  the  title  of  this  piece.  I  confess 
to  more  than  a  little  surprise  at  Ed- 
ward's statement  regarding  Carroll's 
relationship  with  Tyrwhitt.  He  states 
that  "They  [Carroll  and  Tyrwhitt] 
had  some  discussion  about  'art'  but 
the  impression  I  get  is  that  Dodgson 
didn't  accept  Tyi-whitt's  argument." 
Wakeling  implies,  apparently,  that  this 
was  a  little  more  than  a  transitory  re- 
lationship. This  is  wholly  misleading, 
however,  and  is  contradicted  by  Wake- 
ling  himself  in  the  diaries  where  he 
states  "The  two  men  often  discussed 
social  and  religious  matters"  {Diaries, 
January?,  1856,2:11  n.l2). 

Wliat  is  particularly  siuprising  is 
that  the  context  of  this  diary  note  is 
an  entry  by  Carroll  regarding  his  read- 


ing o^  Alton  Locke,  Charles  Kingsley's 
book  on  the  "privations  and  miseries 
of  the  poor..."  Carroll  was  extremely 
sympathetic  to  Kingsley's  thesis,  and 
the  book  had  a  profound  effect  on 
him.  In  this  particular  case,  however, 
he  was  comparing  Kingsley  unfavor- 
ably to  Paley  on  the  matter  of  mira- 
cles. Carroll  (most  unusually  in  such 
matters)  appears  to  be  deferring  to 
Tyrwhitt's  reading  of  Kingsley. 

There  are  a  number  of  points  to 
be  raised  here,  all  of  which  Wakeling 
is  aware  of.  (I  have  discussed  these 
matters  with  him  several  times  and 
he  has  appeared  to  accept  the  theses 
involved.)  The  first  is  that,  at  the  time 
of  the  entry,  Carroll  was  in  a  marked 
minority  among  Oxford  clergy  in 
expressing  sympathy  for  Kingsley's 
writing.  Not  only  was  Kingsley  deemed 
a  "Chartist,"  but,  perhaps  more  damn- 
ing, his  Broad  Church,  neo-Platonist 
theology  was  utterly  contrary  to  that 
of  the  Oxford  establishment  of  the 
time.  Kingsley,  of  course,  was — with 
Frederick  Dennison  Maurice — a 
founder  of  the  Christian  Socialist 
Movement.  Carroll's  lifelong  admira- 
tion of  Maurice  is  now  (I  hope)  wholly 
accepted.  For  Carroll  to  be  discussing 
Kingsley  with  Tyrwhitt  in  such  circum- 
stances does  indicate  a  level  of  sym- 
pathy and  trust  that  extends  beyond 
mere  acquaintanceship.  Tyrwhitt,  of 
course,  was  also  a  named  recipient 
of  a  copy  of  Wonderland — a  fact  that 
indicates  that  the  relationship  was  not 
merely  transient.  Indeed,  having  had 
the  honor  and  pleasure  of  seeing  the 
inscribed  edition  that  Carroll  sent  to 
Tyrwhitt,  I  can  say  that  the  extended 
inscription  demonstrates  the  closeness 
of  the  relationship.  As  Wakeling  has 
also  seen  this  inscription,  I  find  it  odd 
that  he  attempts  in  this  contradictory 
way  to  play  down  their  relationship — 
and  deflect  the  focus  from  religious 
and  social  to  "merely"  one  of  common 
interest  in  art. 

Of  course,  it  was  wholly  inevitable 
that  Carroll  would  seek  out  Tyrwhitt  at 
Oxford,  given,  as  Wakeling  notes,  that 
the  Tyrwhitts  (like  the  Hudsons)  were 
one  of  the  "great"  Northeast  families. 
Carroll's  own  family's  strong  North- 
east links  are  well  documented.  I  also 
note  that  Tyi-whitt's  father  was 


recorder  of  Chester — another  geo- 
graphic coincidence! 

Regarding  Wakeling's  comments 
on  Marske:  He  states  that  "To  say  that 
Marske  Hall  was  the  only  place  where 
the  Dodgsons  could  have  stayed  is 
somewhat  deceptive.  There  were 
other  buildings  including  a  school,  52 
houses,  and  a  rectory."  Well,  I'm  sorry 
if  this  seems  "deceptive"  to  Wake- 
ling— but  I  was  placing  my  comment 
in  the  context  of  nineteenth-century 
mores  and  social  relationships.  If  Mr. 
Wakeling  wishes  to  consider  it  likely 
that  Dodgson  Sr.  would  feel  it  socially 
appropriate  to  lodge  at  any  one  of 
the  52  houses,  the  school,  or  even  the 
"small"  rectory,  then  I  would  be  most 
intrigued  to  hear  his  arguments  in 
support  of  such  a  thesis.  If  we  know 
anything  of  Dodgson  Sr.,  it  is  that  he 
would  never  either  impose  himself 
inappropriately  or  do  anything  that 
would  detrimentally  affect  the  dignity 
and  status  of  himself  or  his  family. 
The  Dodgsons,  as  we  know,  were 
always  fully  aware  of  their  social  posi- 
tion. Of  course,  should  Wakeling's 
inferred  proposition  be  correct — that 
is,  that  Dodgson  Sr.  was  not  a  guest  of 
the  Huttons — why,  that  makes  his  rea- 
sons for  visiting  Marske  all  the  more 
intriguing,  and  all  the  more  worthy  of 
exploration  and  explanation.  As  I  sub- 
mitted my  piece  in  order  to  stimulate 
further  research,  this  possibility  does 
have  its  attractions. 

John  Tufail 

London,  U.K. 


xug 

Many  thanks  for  allowing  me  to  read 
John  Tufail's  letter  and  for  giving  me 
an  opportunity  to  respond.  The  sub- 
stance of  his  response  seems  to  focus 
on  my  comment  on  his  statement 
that  Richard  St.  John  Tyrwhitt  "was 
one  of  Carroll's  closest  companions 
in  his  early  years  at  Christ  Church." 
Tyrwhitt  was  at  Christ  Church  from 
1845  to  1859,  being  a  student  and  a 
tutor.  Dodgson  does  not  mention  Tyr- 
whitt in  his  diaries  until  1856,  but,  of 
course,  their  paths  may  have  crossed 
before  this.  References  to  him  over  a 
four-year  period  indicate  that  the  re- 
lationship was  one  of  a  colleague  and 
friend.  When  Tyrwhitt  takes  up  the 


31 


position  of  vicar  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen, 
Oxford,  a  post  he  held  from  1858  to 
1872,  there  are  no  more  than  half  a 
dozen  mentions  of  him  in  Dodgson's 
diaries.  In  fact,  he  is  mentioned  no 
more  than  twenty  times  throughout 
Dodgson's  life,  and  some  of  these  are 
indirect  references  (e.g.  meeting  him 
in  company  with  a  group  of  other 
tutors).  Dodgson  attended  his  funeral 
in  1895.  My  point  was  that,  in  my 
opinion,  he  was  not  one  of  Dodgson's 
closest  companions  in  comparison 
with,  say,  Bayne,  Prout,  Kitchin,  and 
others.  He  did  not  go  for  long  walks 
with  Tyrwhitt.  He  did  not  use  Tyrwhitt 
as  a  confidant  or  adviser.  Their  friend- 
ship was  relatively  short-lived  through 
circumstance,  but  they  remained  in 
contact  and  met  each  other  a  few 
times  over  the  next  thirty  years. 


To  state  that  Tyrwhitt,  being  a 
named  recipient  of  a  copy  of  Wonder- 
land, is  an  argument  that  indicates 
the  relationship  was  "not  merely 

transient"  is  invalid there  are  many 

instances  of  a  child  on  a  train  journey 
becoming  a  recipient  after  a  single 
meeting  lasting  a  few  hours. 

I  can  add  nothing  to  my  point 
about  where  people  might  stay  in 
Marske.  I  gave  a  factual  report  of 
the  buildings  in  the  hamlet.  I  merely 
pointed  out  that  residence  at  Marske 
Hall  is  purely  speculation,  and  to 
say  that  "the  Dodgsons  were  almost 
certainly  the  guests"  and  "there  really 
wasn't  anywhere  other  than  Marske 
Hall  where  the  Dodgsons  could  have 
stayed"  is  misleading  without  some 
concrete  evidence. 

Edward  Wakeling 

Clifford,  UK 


In     working    with     Matt     Demakos's 
article    in    this    issue,    I    noted    with 
interest  the  following  tale  from  the 
fabulist  Phaedrus: 
"The  Bees  had  made  their  honey- 
combs in  a  lofty  oak,  and  the  lazy 
drones  were  calming  these  as  their 
own.  The  dispute  was  brought  into 
court  before  the  wasp  as  judge;  who, 
being  perfectly  acquainted  with 
either  tribe,  propose  the  following 
terms  for  both  to  meet:  'Your  bodily 
shapes,'  said  he,  "are  not  unlike,  and 
your  color  is  about  the  same;  hence 
the  case  is  obviously  and  or  good 
reason  moot.  But  lest  my  strict  sense 
of  duty  go  wrong  through  insufficient 
knowledge,  take  these  hives  and  distil 
your  respective  productions  into  the 
waxen  cells,  so  that  from  the  flavor 


^^ 


^-^ 


Sn  Jflemoriam 

Derek  Hudson 
1911  -October 31,  2003 

We  regret  to  note  the  passing  of  Carroll  scholar  Derek  Hudson,  author  of  more  than  twenty  books,  editor  {The  Times, 
Spectator,  and  Oxford  University  Press)  and  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Literature.  Hudson  had  been  a  member  and 
keen  supporter  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  (UK)  from  its  early  days.  His  excellent  biography — Lewis  Carroll  (London: 
Constable,  1954),  revised  as  Leiuis  Carroll,  an  Illustrated  Biography  (London:  Book  Club  Associates,  1976;  New  York:  Clarkson 
Potter,  1977) — and  his  essay  decrying  Freudian  interpretations  {Lervis  Carroll,  Longmans,  1958)  have  been  invaluable  to 
researchers  and  a  source  of  great  joy  to  readers. 

Hudson's  papers  relating  to  Carroll  are  on  deposit  in  the  Surrey  History  Centre  in  Woking,  England. 

Morton  Cohen  contributes  these  reminiscences: 

When  I  undertook  to  edit  Lewis  Carroll's  letters  in  the  early  1960s,  Derek  Hudson  was  one  of  the  first  persons  I  ap- 
proached for  insight  and  help.  He  was  Carroll's  most  recent  biographer  and  he  would  certainly  have  suggestions 
about  people  I  might  approach  for  copies  of  Carroll's  correspondence.  We  met  for  the  first  time  at  the  English-Speak- 
ing Union  in  Charles  Street,  London,  for  lunch.  He  was  a  moderately  tall  man,  slender,  with  white  hair  and  sharp, 
sparkling  eyes.  We  chatted  amiably,  and  indeed  he  made  a  good  many  suggestions  about  how  I  might  proceed. 
It  turned  out  that,  at  that  time,  we  were  virtual  neighbors  in  South  Kensington,  and  he  asked  me  round  to  his 
home  a  number  of  times.  We  sat  in  his  study — I  recall  carved  paneled  walls — and  he  showed  me  all  his  files 
and  papers  connected  with  his  Carroll  biography.  I  remember  he  had  one  especially  useful  notebook  with 
names  of  people  he  had  interviewed,  and,  of  course,  he  allowed  me  to  take  it  away  and  have  it  photocopied. 
Hudson  styled  himself  a  professional  journalist,  but,  indeed,  he  was  more  than  that,  having  written,  in 
true  scholarly  mode,  more  than  a  dozen  books,  some  about  some  major  journalists,  but  others  rang- 
ing from  studies  of  Kensington  Palace  and  Holland  House  to  his  autobiography,  Writing  Between  the  Lines. 
He  had  known  and  interviewed  a  number  of  people  who  in  fact  knew  Lewis  Carroll,  and  his  reports  of  those 
meetings  were  invaluable  to  me.  In  his  biography  of  Carroll,  he  brings  forth  material  that  had  never  appeared 
in  print  before.  Certainly  one  of  his  major  contributions  was  his  discovery  of  "Cakeless,"  the  undergradu- 
ate satire  of  Christ  Church,  its  members,  and  especially  the  Liddell  family  and  Lewis  Carroll.  When  it  appeared 
in  1874,  it  was  seen  as  an  outrageous  and  scandalous  piece  of  writing,  and  its  author  was  in  fact  "rusticated." 
In  later  life,  Derek  moved  to  Hindhead  in  the  south.  I  visited  him  there  at  least  once.  In  more  recent  times,  he  lived  with  his 
daughter  in  Guildford. 


32 


of  the  honey  and  the  pattern  of  the 
comb,  matters  now  in  question,  it 
may  be  evident  who  was  responsible 
for  these  combs.'  The  drones  refused, 
but  the  bees  were  pleased  with  the 
proposed  test.  Then  the  wasp  ren- 
dered judgment  as  follows:  'It  is 
plainly  evident  who  can't  have  made 
and  who  did  make  the  combs;  where- 
fore, I  restore  the  fruit  of  their  labors 
to  the  bees.'"  ~  translated  by  Ben 


Edwin  Perry  (Cambridge,  MA:  Loeb 
Classical  Library,  1965). 

It  is  likely  (though  not  certain) 
that  Dodgson  read  Phaedrus  as  part 
of  his  classical  studies.  Perhaps  reso- 
nances of  this  judicial  insect  helped 
create  the  wasp  in  what  might  have 
been  a  judge's  wig? 

Andrew  Ogus 

San  Francisco 


'Savings  pnoo)  The  WmTing  Desk 


OF  Alan  Tannenbaum 


■^^ 


"^•^■^^s  you  have  already  read,  the  New  York  City 
^^^^  meeting  at  the  Fales  Library  was  a  success.  We 
M.  ^owe  a  great  deal  of  thanks  to  Marvin  Taylor,  its 

director,  for  allowing  us  to  meet  there,  and  for  the  help  in 
arranging  the  hi-tech  facilities  that  we  used  for  the  Board 
of  Directors  meeting  and  the  main  program.  Little  did  I 
know  thirty  years  ago,  when  I  worked  for  NYU  in  the  ad- 
joining building  helping  to  plan  the  information  system 
for  the  yet-to-be-built  Bobst  Library,  that  the  Berol  Collec- 
tion within  the  Fales  within  the  Bobst  would  house  such  an 
important  Carroll  collection. 

Despite  the  state  of  travel  nowadays,  it  was  gratifying 
to  have  more  than  seventy  people  in  attendance,  many  of 
whom  traveled  from  other  cities.  We  had  members  from 
all  corners  of  the  covuitry.  We  were  very  pleased  to  have 
some  special  guests  from  far  away,  including  our  longtime 
Carrollian  friend,  scholar,  and  collector  Yoshiyuki  Momma 
from  Japan,  as  well  as  Mrs.  Eiko  Okvmi,  the  treasurer  of 
the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  Japan,  and  Dana  McCausland, 
president  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  Canada.  Edward 
Wakeling  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  (UK)  was  one  of  our 
featured  speakers,  so  we  had  coverage  from  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  Carrollian  world. 

As  for  ravings:  Those  of  you  who  could  not  attend 
missed  some  outstanding  and  provocative  talks  by  Edward 
Wakeling  and  Morton  Cohen,  and  a  performance  by  pro- 
fessional actor  (and  LCSNA  board  member)  Andrew  Sel- 
lon  and  two  of  his  follow  thespians.  The  auction,  with  Joel 


Birenbaum  at  the  hammer,  was  great  fun  as  well  as  a  suc- 
cessful fund-raiser,  and  a  number  of  original  and  special 
edition  books  and  other  bits  of  Carrolliana  were  sold  to 
attendees.  The  extra  festivities  on  the  day  before,  the  frab- 
jous lunch  and  reception  on  Saturday  (thanks,  as  always, 
to  Janet  Jurist  for  local  arrangements),  and  a  small  gather- 
ing of  friends  at  Alice's  Tea  Cup  for  Sunday  brunch  made 
it  well  worth  the  trip.  Please  consider  attending  at  least 
one  meeting  each  year.  The  Knight  Lettei  always  has  an  ex- 
cellent synopsis,  but  it  can't  quite  match  being  there. 

We  hope  to  have  another  superb  meeting  in  the 
spring,  when  we  meet  at  the  Houghton  Library  at  Har- 
vard, in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  The  meeting  is 
planned  for  Saturday,  May  8.  Watch  the  Society's  web  site 
(www.LewisCarroll.org)  for  updates.  I  am  led  to  believe 
that  we  may  have  some  special  international  visitors,  and 
there  is  a  good  chance  that  the  meeting  will  include  an 
extra  day  on  Friday,  so  try  to  reserve  both  days  for  being  in 
the  Boston  area. 

I  hope  everyone  had  a  good  holi- 
day season,  and  on  behalf  of  the 
Society,  I  wish  you  a  happy  and 
healthy  2004. 


"AUce" 

Well,  I  heard  she  flew  down  to  the 

Mountain  City. 
He  said,  that's  not  what  I  heard — I 

hear  she  went  higher. 
She  depended  on  her  friends  to 

tell  her  when  to  stop  it 
To  make  a  statement;  this  is  me 

talking  to  you. 

chorus:  Like  Alice  through  the 

looking  glass, 
She  used  to  know  who  she  was. 
Call  out  my  name,  call  out  my  name, 
But  I  get  no  answer,  she  prays. 

Better  run  for  your  life,  cried  the  Mad 

Hatter. 
All  right,  said  Alice,  I'm  going  back 
To  the  other  side  of  the  mirror;  I'm 

going  back. 
Oh  no,  you  cannot  tell  a  gypsy,  ooh, 

that  she's  no  longer  a  member. 
Become  a  deadly  weapon  now  along 

with  everything  else 
Oh,  call  my  name. 
Ooh  run  for  your  life  said  the 

Mad  Hatter 
All  right,  said  Alice,  I'm  going  back  to 

the  other  side  of  the  mirror 
This  is  me  talking  to  you  well  this  is 

me  talking  to  ya 
Alice,  Alice... 

Stevie  Nicks 
The  Other  Side  Of  The  Mirror  (1989) 


'^NIDV^ 


Her  companions,  scattered  around 
the  room,  also  accentuated  for  the 
Frenchman's  benefit  their  lascivious 
attitudes.  Sitting,  standing,  or  half- 
reclining,  several  of  them  seemed 
to  be  miming  the  living  reproduc- 
tion of  more  or  less  famous  works  of 
art:  Greuze's  Broken  Pitcher  (but  in  a 
further  state  of  undress),  Edouard 
Manneret's  Bait,^  Fernand  Cormon's 
Chained  Captive,  Alice  Liddell  as  a 
little  beggar  girl  with  her  shift  in  sug- 
gestive tatters  photographed  by  the 
Oxford  don  Charles  Dodgson  .  .  . 

Alain  Robbe-Grillet 

Repetition:  A  Novel  (New  York: 

Grove  Press,  2003;  Richard 

Howard,  translator) 

'  Manneret  is  a  fictional  character,  the  vic- 
tim in  Robbe-Grillet's  1965  mystery  novel 
La  maison  de  rendez-vous. 


m. 

"Sunshine" 

I  sold  my  soul  for  a  one  night 

stand 
I  followed  Alice  into  Wonderland 
I  ate  the  mushroom  and  I  danced 

with  the  queen 
Yeah,  we  danced  in  between  all  the 

lines 
I  followed  daylight  right  into  the 

dark 
Took  to  the  Hatter  like  a  walk  in 
the  park 
But  then  I  met  her,  yeah,  she  felt 

so  right 
No  child  of  the  night,  yeah,  was  she 

chorus:  They  called  her  Sunshine 
The  kind  that  everybody  knows 
Yeah  yeah,  Sunshine 
She's  finer  than  a  painted  rose 
Yeah  yeah.  Sunshine,  yeah 

I  got  the  karma  but  it  don't 

come  free 
I'll  chase  that  rabbit  up  the  old 

oak  tree 
The  caterpillar's  tryin'  to  cop  a  plea 
But  the  smoke  ain't  got  nothin' 

on  me 

Aerosmith 
Just  Push  Play  (2001) 


GET  FUZZY  Darby  Conley 


TOPUE  Ihi  THE 
CM  U\/€S  IM 

-mi^  ^pARTMeviT 

WHO  19  TH^S 
CAT  AWO IWHBPE 

IS  He?'. 


rw  LOCWHCr 

AT  H»M  tClQHT 

hiOW. 


S  "WIS  CAT 
MlCKDSCDflC. 
(X  ARE  we 
TALKIM'  SOME 
WViP  CF  HAK\A5Y 
SlT\JATl«4 
WH95C  OJLX 
>rDUCAKiSe€ 


34 


-^^ 


Le2eme  Colloqiie  International  Leu^iJ  Carroll 


Lawrence  Gasquet 

Universite  Michel  de  Montaisrne-Bordeaux  III 
^^^      


On  the  17th  and  18th  of  October  2003,  the 
Second  International  Lewis  Carroll  Conference' 
took  place  in  France  under  the  direction  of 
Sophie  Marret,  Jean-Jacques  Lecercle,  Michel  Morel, 
Isabella  Nieres,  and  Lawrence  Gasquet.  The  symposium 
was  held  at  the  University  of  Rennes  in  Brittany,  and 
invited  the  participants  to  ponder  over  "Lewis  Carroll 
8c  les  mythologies  de  I'enfance"  ("Lewis  Carroll  and  the 
Mythologies  of  Childhood"). 

The  first  day  of  the  conference  gave  the  participants 
an  opportunity  to  think  about  the  progression  from  text 
to  reader  response,  reflected  in  the  following  papers: 

Jean-Jacques  Lecercle  (Universite  de  Paris  X  -  Nan- 
terre):  "Desir  d'Alice" 

Sophie  Marret  (Universite  de  Rennes  II):  "Les  petites 
filles:  de  I'inconscient  au  mythe" 

Michel  Morel  (Universite  de  Nancy  II):  "La  double 
contrainte  dans  Alice  ou  le  mythe  en  etat  de  con- 
trariete" 

Isabelle  Nieres-Chevrel  (Universite  de  Rennes  II): 
"Alice  dans  la  mythologie  surrealiste" 

Two  workshops  were  held  in  the  afternoon:  the  first 
was  devoted  to  Carrollian  linguistics  and  reception  aes- 
thetics, and  included  the  following  participants: 

Sakari  Katajamaki  (University  of  Helsinki):  "Lan- 
guage as  a  Leading  Path:  Lewis  Carroll's  Nonsense 
and  Linguistic  Determination" 
Sebastien  Chapleau  (University  of  Cardiff):  "Alice, 
Critics  and/as  Children:  A  Childist  Approach  to 
Children's  Books" 

Stephanejousni  (Universite  de  Rennes  II):  "La  voix 
de  I'enfance:  Joyce  oix  la  revolution  du  Portrait" 
The  other  workshop  recontextualized  Carroll's  pro- 
ductions within  the  framework  of  Victorian  children's 
literature  or  representation: 

Virginie  Douglas  (Universite  de  Rouen):  "D'Alice  a 
Harry:  mythe  et  spatialisation  du  texte  dans  la  littera- 
ture  britannique  contemporaine  pour  la  jeunesse" 
Strother  Purdy  (Marquette  University,  USA):  "Lewis 
Carroll  and  the  Subversion  of  the  Child  Myth" 
Jacques  Dissard  (Universite  de  Paris  X  -  Nanterre): 
"Alice  ou  les  gargons" 

Lydie  Malizia  &  Frank  Thibault  (Universite  de  Paris 
III):  "Alice,  Peter  et  Miles:  la  fin  de  I'innocence" 
The  first  day  of  the  conference  ended  with  a  screen- 
ing and  commentary  presented  by  Chiara  Lagani,  director 
of  the  Italian  theater  troupe  Famiy  &  Alexander  \\'b\ch  had 


recently  presented  a  play  entitled  Alice  Vietato  >  18  Anni 
("Alice:  over  eighteen  years  old  not  admitted"). 

The  next  morning  a  workshop  was  held  on  illustration 
and  photography,  with  the  following  program: 

Toshiro  Nakajima  (Konan  University, Japan):  "The 
Diptych-like  Imagination  in  Lewis  Carroll" 

Mikiko  Chimori  (Osaka  Meijo  Women's  College, 
Japan):  "Modern  Japanese  Alice  Illustrations" 

Rosella  Mallardi  (University  of  Bari,  Italy):  "Lewis 
Carroll's  Photographic-Narrative  Aesthetics  and  the 
Myth  of  the  Child" 

John  Tufail  (University  of  East  London):  "The  Illumi- 
nated Snark:  Symbol  and  the  Language  of  Illustration 
in  The  Hunting  of  the  SnarK' 

The  other  workshop  pursued  the  thread  of  the  pre- 
ceding day,  the  myths  of  childhood: 

Luiza  Palanciuc  (EHESS,  Paris):  "Possible  traversee: 
mythes  et  stereotypes  de  I'enfance  chez  Lewis  Carroll" 

Hugues  Lebailly  (Universite  Paris  I  -  Tolbiac): 
"L'amie-enfant  carrollienne,  mythe  et  realite" 

Kate  Lyon  (Wliitireia  Polytechnic,  New  Zealand): 
"Instances  of  Mythological  Symbolism  Within  the 
Alice  Texts" 

Pascale  Renaud-Grosbras  (Rennes):  "Lewis  Carroll 
et  les  psychobiographes:  la  fondation  du  mythe  ou 
I'enfance  reifiee" 

A  plenary  session  was  held  in  the  afternoon,  dealing 
with  music  and  photography: 

Simon  Gallot  (Universite  Lyon  II):  "Lewis  Carroll 
mis  en  musique  par  Gyorgy  Ligeti:  'The  Lobster  Qua- 
drille'" 

Lawrence  Gasquet  (Universite  de  Bordeaux  III): 
"Lewis  Carroll,  Writer  and  Photographer:  Clearing 
Up  a  Few  Myths" 

Lindsay  Smith  (University  of  Sussex):  "Photography, 
Stammering  and  the  Voice  of  Infancy" 

The  papers  from  this  conference  will  be  published 
soon  by  the  University  of  Rennes  II.  A  volume  of  the 
First  International  Conference  which  was  held  in  Nancy 
in  1999  has  recently  been  published  by  the  University 
of  Nancy,  with  articles  in  French  and  English,  edited  by 
Professor  Michel  Morel. - 

'  The  similarly  named  First  and  Second  International  Lewis  Carroll 
Conferences,  which  have  been  held  in  Oxford,  England  (1989) 
and  North  Carolina  (1994),  have  no  formal  relation. 

^  Michel  Morel,  Leims  Carroll: Jeux  et  Enjeux  Critiques  (Nancy:  Presses 
Universitaires  de  Nancy,  2003).  €21  from  wwvs.amazon.fr. 

35 


SEE  YOU  IN  THE 
FUNNY  PAPERS 

Pictures  and  Conversations:  Lewis  Carroll 
in  the  Comics  by  Byron  Sewell,  Mark 
Burstein,  and  Alan  Tannenbaum 
(Austin:  Ivory  Door,  2003)  is  a  com- 
prehensive, annotated  international 
bibliography  of  comic  books  that 
contain  references  to  Lewis  Carroll 
and  his  works  or  characters,  "from  the 
big  names  to  the  unknowns — from 
the  far-away  to  the  far-out."  The  pref- 
ace, "Comic  Sensibilities:  Alice  in 
the  Funny  Papers"  by  Mark  Burstein, 
provides  a  survey  of  the  comic  me- 
dium throughout  history  and  begins 
the  discussion  of  the  appearances 
of  Carroll  characters  therein:  The 
first  ones  arrived  in  1901,  just  three 
years  after  Dodgson's  death  and  they 
continue  to  make  appearances  to  this 
day.  Most  everyone  you  have  heard 
of  (Superman,  Batman,  Casper  the 
Friendly  Ghost,  the  Incredible  Hulk, 
and  so  forth)  has  at  one  time  or  an- 
other been  visited  by,  or  has  visited, 
the  /ife  characters.  The  bibliography 
itself  is  chronological  within  catego- 
ries, from  Horror  and  Sci-Fi  through 
Funny  Books,  Translations,  Erotica, 
and  so  on.  It  has  two  indexes.  See 
www.IvoryDoor.com  or  write  to  Alan 
Tannenbaum,  S801  Greystone  Drive, 
Austin  TX  78731 


oV^  «^c^  X, 


IF  YOU  MEET  SABUDA 
ON  THE  ROAD 

Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland  (New 
York:  Little  Simon,  2003).  $25.  "Paper 
engineer"  Robert  Sabuda  has  cre- 
ated a  most  enchanting  pop-up  book 
based  on  the  Tenniel  illustrations. 
His  ingenuity  in  the  constructions  is 
breathtaking:  a  Victorian  peep  show, 
hidden  faces,  foil  elements,  and  an  as- 
tonishing dimensionality  taken  to  new 
heights  for  the  medium.  The  volume 
is  on  the  Nno  York  Times  best-seller  list 
in  the  "Children's  Picture  Books"  cat- 
egory and  in  the  "Ten  Best  Illustrated 
Children's  Books  for  2003"  in  the  Neio 
York  Times  Book  Review  (November 
16,  2003).  He  is  also  the  subject  of  a 
biographical  article  in  Chris  Hedges' 
"Public  Lives"  column  in  the  Neiu  York 
Times,  December  9.  Here  is  an  e-inter- 
view  with  Robert: 

Why  did  you  choose  M\ce^  Adventures  ? 
I  have  always  loved  the  story  of  Alice 
since  she  is  up  against  such  terrible 
odds  in  a  crazy  world  of  mean  adults. 
In  fact,  I  never  really  got  over  the 
fact  of  just  how  mean  the  adults  were 
to  her  (can  you  imagine  a  duchess 
with  such  a  sharp  little  chin?)  And  of 
course  the  use  of  silly  language  and 
play  on  words  is  wonderful! 

How  long  did  the  project  take? 
Most  pop-up  (or  "movable"  books, 
as  they  are  traditionally  called)  take 
from  six  months  to  a  year  to  develop 
and  Alice  was  no  exception.  The 
most  challenging  part  is  the  design 
of  all  the  pop-ups!  This  can  take  even 
longer  than  creating  all  of  the  actual 
artwork  that  will  go  on  the  pops 
themselves. 


Were  there  special  challenges  ? 
The  story  of  Alice  is  so  beloved  I 
wanted  to  make  sure  that  I  stayed 
on  a  respectful  side  when  creating 
the  book.  One  of  my  philosophies  in 
bringing  classic  tales  to  the  pop-up 
world  is  "if  it  ain't  broke,  don't  fix  it!" 
So  I  always  try  to  be  very  respectful  to 
the  original  creators  yet  at  the  same 
time  have  the  book  reflect  something 
of  me  as  an  artist. 

Are  there  "hidden"  things  to  look  for  which 
we  might  otherwise  miss  ? 
The  flying  cards  scene  (if  I  remember 
correctly)  has  exactly  two  decks  of 
cards  in  it! 

How  did  you  first  come  across  Carroll?  Do 
you  have  an  affection  for  him  ? 
I  have  loved  the  story  of  Alice  for  so 
long  I  don't  even  remember  when 
I  was  first  introduced  to  it.  I'm  sure 
that  my  mother  must  have  read  the 
story  to  me  and  it  just  became  part 
of  the  "library  in  my  head."  When  I 
grew  up  I  finally  had  the  opportunity 
to  learn  more  about  Carroll  and  his 
love  of  telling  stories. 

Are  you  planning  to  do  a  Looking-Glass 

sequel? 

I  haven't  thought  about  a  sequel  yet, 

but  one  never  knows! 

Does  anything  else  cotne  to  mind? 
Please  just  thank  everyone  in  your 
organization  for  supporting  such 
non traditional  versions  of  Alice  and 
let  them  know  that  if  they  would  like 
to  find  out  more  about  the  book  (in- 
cluding pictures  of  the  process  for 
making  it)  to  please  stop  by  my  web- 
site, www.robertsabuda.com. 


IN  BRIEF 

Alice  in  (Pop-Up)  Wonderland  by]. 
Otto  Seibold  with  paper  engineering 
by  James  Diaz  (New  York:  Orchard, 
2003)  is  an  abridgment  of  the  text 
featuring  stylish,  sophisticated,  color- 
ful, and  wildly  stylized  digitally-ren- 
dered illustrations  by  the  best-selling 
illustrator  of  Olive,  the  Other  Reindeer, 
Penguin  Dreams;  Space  Monkey;  and 
the  Mr.  Lunch  series.  A  very  witty 
volume,  it  somehow  complements 
Sabuda's. 

One  Pill  Makes  You  Smaller  by  Lisa  Dier- 
beck  (New  York:  Farrar,  Straus  &  Gir- 


36 


oux,  2003),  reviewed  in  the  Neiu  York 
Times  on  September  7,  2003,  is  an- 
other unfortunate  paHmpsest  on  the 
tale,  this  time  with  AHce  as  an  eleven- 
year-old,  oft-molested  Manhattanite 
in  the  1970s,  living  in  "a  haze  of  non- 
supervision,  drugs,  rock  music,  and 
[her  sister]  Esme's  boyfriends."  One 
of  them  is  called  Rabbit  and  takes  her 
to  an  anarchic  art  camp,  a  substitute 
for  Wondeiiand,  where  she  is  further 
seduced  into  sexual  abuse.  The  title 
is  a  misquote  of  the  misbegotten  rock 
song,  yet  one  further  remove  from  au- 
thenticity. The  author  was  interviewed 
on  the  Leonard  Lopate  radio  show  on 
WNYC  in  New  York  on  October  3.  You 
can  hear  it  at  www.wnyc.org/shows/ 
lopate/archive.html?month=200310. 

Rupert  Holmes's  mystery  thriller 
Where  the  Truth  Lies  (New  York:  Ran- 
dom House,  2003)  is  described  in  a 
New  York  Times  review 
(August  3,  2003)  as  a 
"witty  analysis  oi  Alice 
in  Wonderland  as  a  neu- 
rotic young  woman 
who  ingests  forbidden 
substances  and  wanders 
through  surreal  [1970s] 
landscapes  in  search  of 
dangerous  knowledge 
and  new  sensations." 

Another  Alice,  Eh  ?  Alice 's 
Adventures  in  an  Alberta 
Wonderland,  Byron 
Sewell's  "translation" 
of  the  Adventures  into 
contemporary  Canadian, 
illumined  with  his  own 
fine  illustrations,  was 
published  by  the  L.C.S. 
Canada  in  December, 
2002. 

Peter  Blake  by  Natalie 
Rudd  in  the  Tate's 
"Modern  Artists"  series 
(London:  Tate  Publish- 
ing, 2003).  This  color- 
ful and  well-designed 
volume  explores  his  life 
and  art.  Blake  (b.  1932) 
has  worked  in  an  aston- 
ishing variety  of  media. 
Perhaps  best  known  for 
his  cover  for  Sgt.  Pepper's 
Lonely  Hearts  Club  Band, 
Blake  was  commissioned 


in  the  late  1960s  to  do  a  suite  of  eight 
illustrations  for  Looking-Glass.  The 
book  project  did  not  go  through,  so 
they  were  released  as  prints.  You  can 
see  all  of  them  (and  one  he  did  of 
the  Mad  Tea  Party) ,  a  photo  of  his 
Alice  model,  and  a  two-page  interview 
about  his  Carroll  obsession  in  these 
pages,  as  well  as  an  in-depth  look  at 
his  remarkably  delightful  body  of 
work. 


^ 

READY,  AIM,  FIREFLY ! 

Mark  Burstein 

Alice  in  Wonderland 

Illustrated  by  Ralph  Steadman 

Published  by  Firefly  Books  Ltd. 

US$  29.95 

ISBN:  1-55297-754-4 

www.fireflybooks.com 


©  2003  Ralph  Steadman 


Our  friend  George  Walker,  he  of  the 
magnificent  Cheshire  Cat  Press  edi- 
dons  of  the  canon  (/CL  55.6-7,  58.18), 
has  spent  the  last  year  in  the  (virtual) 
company  of  Ralph  Steadman  as  Fire- 
fly Books,  Ltd.  of  Toronto  has  just 
issued  a  new  edition  of  Wonderland, 
replete  with  Mr.  Steadman's  inspired 
drawings,  some  unique  to  this  version. 
But  first,  a  bit  of  history  of  the  Stead- 
man illustrations,  which,  in  the  pres- 
ent author's  opinion,  reign  supreme 
as  the  set  of  illustrations  for  adults. 
There  is  a  very  slight  drawback  in  the 
caricatures  and  other  visual  in-jokes 
being  recognizable  only  by  dwellers  in 
the  UK. 

1967:  Wonderland  puhVishedhyDoh- 
son  Books  Ltd.,  London.  Also  in  Ital- 
ian by  Milano  Libri  Edizioni. 

1972:  Looking-Glass  published  by  Mac- 
Gibbon  8c  Kee,  Ltd.,  London. 

1972:  Wonderland 

receives  the  Francis 

Williams  Memorial 

bequest  for  the  best 

illustrated  book  of  the 

previous  five  years. 

1973:  Limited  series 
of  Wonderland  and 
Looking-Glass  intaglio 
etchings  released  in 
editions  of  65.  Also 
"WTiite  Rabbit"  and 
"Wool  on  W^ater"  draw- 
ings as  offset  litho 
poster  prints  in  edi- 
tions of  50. 

1973:  New  editions 
of  Wonderland  and 
Looking-Glass  were 
published  simultane- 
ously in  New  York  by 
Clarkson  N.  Potter  and 
in  Don  Mills,  Ontario, 
Canada  by  General 
Publishing  Company 
Ltd. 

1975:  The  .Sr?flr/f  pub- 
lished by  Michael 
Dempsey  in  associa- 
tion with  Studio  Vista 
Ltd.,  London,  and  in 
America  (New  York: 
Clarkson  N.  Potter, 
1 976) .  Also  a  set  of  six 
etchings  in  an  edition 

37 


of  65  in  sepia  and  black  was  published 
by  Bernard  Stone. 

1977:  Verses  of  Lewis  Carroll  Qapanese 
title  is  "Ruisu  Kyaroru  Shishu")   pub- 
lished in  Japanese  (Tokyo:  Chikuma- 
Shobo).  The  slipcase  has  an  illustra- 
tion from  Looking-Glass,  and  there  is 
an  Alice  figure  in  the  inside  covers. 

1977:  A  "Wasp  in  a  Wig"  illustration 
"after  Tenniel,"  commissioned  for  the 
(London)  Sunday  Telegraph  Magazine, 
September  4,  1977,  appears  in  color 
on  the  cover.  Two  more  illustrations 
appear  within.  Reprinted  by  Smith- 
sonian Magazine,  December  1977, 
Vnj  Nederland,  October  22,  1977  (in 
Dutch)  and  (albeit  in  black  and  white 
and  reversed  in  early  printings)  in 
the  "First  American  Trade  Edition"  of 
the  episode  (New  York:  Clarkson  N. 
Potter). 

1986:  Wonderland,  Looking-Glass,  Snark, 
and  "Wasp"  published  in  a  single  vol- 
ume The  Complete  Alice  &  The  Hunting 
of  the  Snark,  simultaneously  by  Salem 
House,  Topsfield,  Massachusetts,  and 
Jonathan  Cape  (Random  House), 
London.  New  material  included  an 
additional  introduction  and  new  il- 
lustrations. Published  also  in  French 
(Paris:  Editions  Aubier  Montaine, 
1986)  and  later  in  German  (Ham- 
burg: Zinnober  Vlg.,  1992). 

1998:  My  After-Dinner  Speech  on  the 
Occasion  of  the  Centary  Dinner  at  Christ 
Church,  Oxford  on  the  14th  January 
1 998,  to  Celebrate  the  Life  of  Lewis  Carroll 
(Luton:  White  Stone  Publishing,  The 
Lewis  Carroll  Society  [UK]).  Contains 
one  drawing  from  Looking-Glass.  The 
talk  was  retitled  "But  we'll  need  some 
jam,"  and  reprinted  sans  the  Stead- 
man  illustration — but  with  three  new 
ones  by  Paul  Cox — in  The  Best  After- 
Dinner  Stories,  selected  and  introduced 
by  Tim  Heald  (London:  The  Folio 
Society,  2003). 

2003:  Wonderland  puhWshed  by  Fire- 
fly Books,  Toronto  and  New  York. 
Redesigned  by  George  Walker,  with 
"restored,  reformatted,  and  updated" 
illustrations  and,  from  the  original 
Dobson  edition,  hand-carved  wooden 
letters  ("Alice"  on  the  cover  and  chap- 
ter numbers). 


38 


George  Walker  was  interviewed  by 
email  about  this  edition. 

Who  had  the  original  idea  for  the  Firefly 
edition  and  xvhy  ? 

Firefly  has  published  two  other 
books  by  Steadman,  Tales  of  the  Weirrd 
and  Sigmund  Freud.  This  was  Just 
continuing  a  relationship  that  was 
built  between  the  publisher  and  Mr. 
Steadman. 

Hoiu  did  you  get  chosen  ? 
I'm  the  in-house  designer  here  at 
Firefly  books  so  it  was  just  another 
book  that  flew  my  way. 

How  did  you  work  with  Mr  Steadman? 
I  mainly  worked  with  Ralph  by  email 
and  snail  mail. 

Were  there  any  added  illustrations  ? 
That's  a  tough  one  to  answer  because 
the  answer  is  'Yes  and  No."  Steadman 
added  new  illustrations  for  Alice  in 
the  Jonathan  Cape  edition  in  1986 
and  reworked  some  of  them  for 
ours.  He  calls  the  new  images  "semi- 
originals."  In  our  edition  some  of 
the  images  have  been  extracted 
from  the  original  illustrations.  For 
instance,  the  picture  of  the  King 
and  Queen  for  the  frontispiece  did 
not  appear  in  any  earlier  editions, 
but  was  an  enlargement  of  a  detail 
from  pp.  114-115  in  ours.  Steadman 
reworked  a  photocopy  to  create  the 
new  image.  You'll  also  find  that  the 
White  Rabbit  on  p.  121  has  had  the 
poem  "They  told  me  you  had  been 
to  her..."  added  to  the  paper  he  is 
holding.  The  same  image  is  reversed 
on  the  cover,  with  the  poem  written 
backwards  (Steadman  called  this 
"foreshadowing  Through  the  Looking- 
Glass'^).  The  Dodo  on  p.  30  is  simi- 
larly extracted  from  pp.  32-33  where 
it  is  partially  obscured  by  the  inner 
gutter  margins.  So  you  can  see  the 
answer  is  not  straightforward. 

Were  any  illustrations  recornbined  from 
earlier  editions  ? 

Yes,  we  have  combined  the  Jonathan 
Cape  and  Dobson  editions.  The  Fire- 
fly edition  is  a  combination  of  the 
two  publications  with  the  new  images 
from  the  Cape  edition  and  the  semi- 
original  images. 

Is  Firefly  planning  to  release  Looking- 
Glass  ?  Snark  ? 

There  are  no  plans  to  publish  them. 
Yet. 


Do  you  have  any  anecdotes  from  your 
working  together? 

Anecdotes?  You  bet!  WTien  Anna 
[Steadman]  returned  the  signed  cop- 
ies of  the  books  she  wrote  on  the  cus- 
toms papers  "does  not  contain  porno- 
graphic material."  Of  course  that  told 
the  ever-paranoid  customs  people 
to  open  the  box  and  check  out  each 
book  for  naughty  pictures. 

Ralph  and  1  did  have  a  great  phone 
conversation  when  the  book  was 
done.  He  was  having  a  glass  of  wine 
and  a  smoke  in  his  backyard  when  the 
first  copy  of  the  new  book  arrived.  He 
called  me  to  say  how  much  he  liked 
what  1  had  done.  I  was  flattered,  and 
then  we  moved  on  to  talking  about 
art,  his  new  illustrated  novel  DooDaaa, 
The  Balletic  Art  of  Gavin  Twinge  [Lon- 
don: Bloomsbury,  2002],  how  curi- 
ous the  warning  pictures  on  smokes 
are,  and  did  we  have  similar  warning 
messages  on  cigarettes  in  Canada.  I 
said  yes  and  sent  him  a  bunch  with 
the  most  gruesome  ones  I  could 
find.  I  think  he  plans  to  do  a  series  of 
sketches. 

/  hate  to  be  clicked,  but  luhat  is  he  like? 
Steadman  is  an  English  gentleman, 
scholar,  and  eccentric,  an  exceptional 
artist  who  is  gracious  and  thoughtful. 
Although  I  was  asked  several  times  to 
interpret  his  emails  to  the  publisher, 
I  think  that  was  because  his  replies 
were  more  creative  than  explanatory. 
It's  the  same  with  most  confusing  cor- 
respondence— like  when  the  Hatter 
says,  'You  might  just  as  well  say  that  'I 
see  what  1  eat'  is  the  same  thing  as  'I 
eat  what  1  see'!" — Steadman  saw  what 
he  said  and  said  what  he  saw,  yet  they 
may  be  construed  differently.  By  the 
way,  he  identifies  himself  completely 
with  Carroll,  almost  to  the  point  of 
"reincarnation"! 

I  studied  printmaking  at  art  col- 
lege, so  Ralph  and  I  had  an  immedi- 
ate shared  love  of  fine  printmaking. 
1  sent  him  some  of  my  wood  engrav- 
ings and  he  sent  me  some  very  cool 
ephemera  he  had.  It  was  truly  a  fun 
experience! 

Mr.  Steadman  has  kindly  given  us  per- 
mission to  print  the  copyright  images 
on  the  front  cover  of  this  issue  and  on 
the  previous  page.  Please  visit  him  at 
www.RalphSteadman.com. 


^ 

A  DARK  VISION 

Larry  Hall 

A  lice  In  Wo  n  derla  n  d 

DVD  and  VHS,  available  in  U.S.  and 
UK  formats 

Produced  and  Directed 
by  Jonathan  Miller 

BBC  Productions 

First  transmitted  on  December  28, 
1966 

Starring  Anne  Marie  Mallik,John 
Gielgud,  Peter  Cook,  Alan 
Bennett,  Leo  McKern,  Peter 
Sellers  and  Michael  Redgrave 

Extras:  director's  commentary,  pro- 
duction stills,  Alice  in  Wonderland 
(1903),  and  director's  biography 

Back  in  the  era  of  peace  and  love, 
when  the  Beatles  ruled  the  airwaves, 
and  Carnaby  Street  was  the  center  of 
fashion,  a  youngish  Jonathan  Miller 
decided  he'd  rather  like  to  make  a 
somewhat  surreal  version  of  Lewis 
Carroll's  already  somewhat  surreal 
story,  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland. 
By  the  mid-1960s.  Miller  was  well 
established  as  a  writer,  performer,  and 
stage  director,  who  was  also  a  pro- 
ducer and  presenter  of  arts  programs 
for  the  BBC,  and  had  made  two  mod- 
erately successful  art  films. 

Approaching  the  then  head  of 
the  BBC,  Sir  Hugh  Weldon,  Miller 
sought  backing  for  the  project.  He 
explained  his  ideas  and  mentioned 
that  he  thought  the  production  would 
cost  around  £28,000  ($78,400).  "No," 
said  Sir  Hugh,  "It  will  cost  £32,000 
($89,600)  and  I  suggest  you  go  ahead 
and  make  it."  And  so  began  the  film- 
ing of  perhaps  the  most  revered  of 
A/«V^  adaptations,  a  version  that  broke 
virtually  all  the  conventions  and  ex- 
pectations of  how  Lewis  Carroll's  story 
should  be  made. 

Out  went  the  cute  animal  masks, 
the  cheery  songs,  and  even  the  pretty 
little  seven-year-old  girl  in  the  blue 
dress.  Miller  went  right  back  to  basics 
and  came  up  with  a  dark  vision  of  a 
serious  Alice,  a  Victorian  child  living 
in  academic  surroundings  struggling 
to  understand  the  adult  world  and 
relating  her  dreams  to  the  people  and 
situations  around  her.  In  many  ways, 
this  film  is  about  Alice  Liddell  and  is 


arguably  one  of  only  two  television 
productions  that  have  attempted  to 
see  her  as  Carroll  saw  her  Alice  is  pre- 
sented as  an  older  child,  perhaps  ten 
to  twelve,  as  she  was  in  real  life  when 
Wonderland  was  written. 

Anne  Marie  Mallik  was  chosen  for 
the  role,  not  for  her  stage  experience, 
which  was  zero,  or  even  her  acting 
ability,  but  because  she  seemed  to 
epitomize  the  serious,  dark-haired 
Alice  Liddell.  Miller  had  advertised 
the  role  but  rejected  most  of  the  ap- 
plicants because  they  were  virtually  all 
conventional  "cute  little  girl"  types. 
Then  almost  out  of  the  blue  came  a 
photograph  of  Anne  Marie  Mallik, 
the  daughter  of  a  Surrey  barrister  and 
with  no  previous  professional  acting 
experience.  Miller  took  one  look  at 
her  unsmiling,  haunted,  and  almost 
otherworldly  expression  and  hired 
her  almost  immediately. 

Miller's  cast  is  impressive.  He  de- 
cided to  try  for  as  many  theatrical 
stars  as  he  could,  but  even  he  was 
surprised  at  the  strata  of  people  who 
were  willing  to  take  him  on.  Among 
others,  there  were  John  Gielgud, 
Ralph  Richardson,  Michael  Redgrave, 
Peter  Sellers,  Leo  McKern,  and  Peter 
Cook — legends  each  and  every  one. 
Without  the  restrictions  of  animal 
masks,  these  fine  actors  could  bring  a 
degree  of  characterization  that  would 
otherwise  be  lost.  Hence,  the  caterpil- 
lar becomes  an  absent-minded  don 
from  the  university,  momentarily  sur- 
prised to  find  an  inquisitive  young  girl 
in  his  rooms  babbling  on  about  size 
changes  and  forgetting  things.  His 
academic  training  suggests  some  reci- 
tation might  put  her  mind  in  order, 
and  of  course  he  has  some  stern 
but  wise  words  on  the  advisability  of 
maintaining  an  equitable  temper  The 
Gryphon  and  the  Mock  Turtle  are  two 
retired  gentlemen  whiling  away  their 
golden  years,  sitting  on  the  beach  in 
conversation,  reminiscing  and  indulg- 
ing a  passion  for  painting.  Miller 
rarely  altered  the  CaroUian  dialogue, 
and  the  written  word  was  never  more 
natural  nor  apt  than  here.  Some  of 
the  actors  improvised  arovmd  certain 
stretches  of  the  dialogue  but  by  and 
large  it  remained  as  Carroll  wrote  it. 


The  whole  film  is  presented  as  one 
long  summer  day,  where  everything  is 
overly  bright,  the  hours  seem  to  drag 
on  forever,  and  there's  a  general  feel- 
ing of  listlessness.  In  a  scene  with  the 
Hatter,  the  conversation  just  peters 
out,  the  arguments  become  pointless 
and  everyone  just  sits  there  too  hot 
and  bothered  to  move.  All  the  outside 
scenes  are  augmented  by  an  insec- 
toid  soundtrack,  heightened  by  the 
use  of  music  composed  and  played 
by  the  world-famous  sitar  player  Ravi 
Shankan  Miller  particularly  wanted 
the  background  music  to  suggest  a 
hot  dusty  day,  with  insects  constantly 
droning  in  the  background.  It  has  to 
be  said  that  Shankar's  Indian  music 
also  carries  a  suggestion  of  hallucina- 
tion, given  its  association  with  the 
Beatles  and  their  psychedelic  period. 

As  much  as  anything,  the  film 
explores  the  nature  of  dreaming,  in 
which  the  dreamer  seems  to  move 
almost  instantly  from  one  situation 
to  another  without  needing  exposi- 
tion or  explanation.  To  enhance  the 
dreamlike  quality.  Miller  has  Alice  de- 
liver much  of  her  dialogue  as  an  over- 
dub,  as  if  she  were  thinking  out  loud. 
This  is  suggested  in  the  original  story, 
where  Alice  internalizes  her  exchange 
with  the  Duchess  at  the  croquet 
match,  but  is  much  expanded  in  the 
film.  As  in  a  dream,  she  often  seems 
to  have  a  conversation  inside  her 
head  while  the  rest  of  her  perceived 
world  reacts  to  what  she  is  thinking. 

There's  also  a  whole  gamut  of  ser- 
vant-heavy culture  existing  on  a  level 
of  its  own,  possessing  its  own  sense  of 
logic — all  of  us  (whether  maid,  foot- 
man, or  gardener)  have  our  jobs  to 
do;  even  if  they  make  no  sense,  they 
are  expected  of  us.  As  John  Bird's 
Frog-Footman  says,  "Tell  you  what 
I'll  do  for  yoti.  Nothing.  Of  course, 
I  can't  do  it  straight  away,  I'm  a  bit 
busy  at  the  moment."  All  said  with  a 
straight  face  and  believing  every  word. 
Jonathan  Miller  saw  in  Wonderland  the 
confusion  of  class  differentiation — 
adults  must  be  respected,  servants  are 
adults,  so  why  aren't  they  respected  in 
the  same  way  as  uncles? 

Apart  from  the  trial  scene  and  a 
couple  of  special  inserts,  there  are 
generally  no  constructed  sets  used 


39 


in  the  film.  It  makes  excellent  use 
of  real  locations,  which  suggests  a 
quintessentially  English  middle-class 
environment,  with  bleached  cottage 
exteriors,  fading  paint  work  and 
rambling  roses  everywhere.  There 
are  Victorian  settings  in  abundance 
and  in  great  detail,  with  bric-a-brac 
cluttered  rooms,  ornate  black-leaded 
fire  grates,  heavy  curtains,  aspidistras 
growing  in  glass  conservatories,  and 
utilitarian  kitchens  with  stone  sinks. 
Miller  actually  placed  advertisements 
asking  for  people  to  suggest  real-life 
locations  that  he  could  use. 

Among  those  chosen  was  the  ru- 
ined Chapel  at  Castle  Donnington, 
where  they  filmed  the  caucus  race, 
the  derelict  Royal  Victoria  Hospital  at 
Netley  near  Southampton — through 
which  Alice's  initial  chase  after  the 
WTiite  Rabbit  takes  place — and  Sun- 
ningdale  House  and  grounds  in  Hast- 
ings. The  pictures  of  Alice  walking 
in  the  beech  woods  on  a  steep-sided 
valley,  soon  after  the  start  of  the  film, 
were  filmed  there,  as  were  the  later 
scenes  as  she  wakes  up.  The  house 
itself  has  now  been  demolished,  but 
the  cottage  within  the  grounds,  which 
doubled  for  the  \ATiite  Rabbit's  cot- 
tage, is  still  standing. 

Miller  and  his  cameraman,  Dick 
Bush,  attempted  to  emulate  the  pho- 
tographic style  of  the  Victorian  era, 
and  particularly  the  look  of  a  Dodg- 
son  photograph.  Hence,  all  of  the 
film  is  shot  with  a  short-focus  9mm 
lens,  which  creates  a  dreamlike  wide 
angle  of  vision  in  which  the  whole 
scene  is  lit  in  a  very  diffuse  way  and 
objects  appear  to  foreshorten  as  they 
approach  the  camera.  They  also  ap- 
pear to  diminish  quickly  and  change 
proportions  as  they  move  away,  and 
this  is  largely  how  Miller  achieved 
Alice's  different  sizes.  By  placing  fur- 
niture close  to  the  camera  and  then 
having  Alice  move  towards  or  away 
from  it,  the  effect  of  her  changing 
size  is  suggested  without  using  an 
obvious  superimposition  or  traveling 
matte  technique.  The  exception  to 
this  is  in  the  White  Rabbit's  bedroom 
where  Alice  diminishes  in  size  quite 
rapidly.  This  was  achieved  by  the  con- 
struction of  a  trick  Ames  room,  which 
from  a  fixed  viewpoint  looks 


perfectly  square  but  is  actually  built 
with  sloping  trapezoid  walls  and  floor, 
taking  only  a  small  movement  inside 
the  room  to  give  the  impression  of  a 
drastic  change  in  size. 

Similarly,  Miller  employs  very  few 
photographic  tricks.  An  obvious  one 
occurs  during  the  trial  scene  when 
Alice  stands  next  to  a  mirror  with  her 
reflection  moving  independently. 
This  may  suggest  that  she  is  in  the 
process  of  waking  up  and  therefore 
losing  her  grip  on  her  dream.  It  may 
also  link  to  the  overall  theme  of  the 
loss  of  childhood,  where  Alice  realizes 
that  she  is  about  to  step  over  one  of 
life's  thresholds  and  become  a  young 
adult.  In  fact.  Miller  uses  a  quotation 
from  Wordsworth's  "Intimations  of 
Immortality"  at  the  end  of  the  film 
as  Alice  intones,  "The  things  which  I 
have  seen  I  now  can  see  no  more."' 

The  film  was  shot  on  35mm  film 
stock  and  in  black  and  white.  There 
was  some  talk  about  re-shooting  the 
film  in  color  for  the  American  mar- 
ket, but  it  was  impossible  to  reassem- 
ble the  cast,  particularly  Peter  Sellers. 
In  any  case,  color  television  sets  were 
rare  in  the  UK  in  1966  and  color  film 
stock  was  a  needless  expense,  particu- 
larly as  most  programs  were  shown 
a  maximum  of  three  times  and  then 
often  dumped.  The  BBC  is  famous 
for  having  wiped  countless  numbers 
of  unique  and  irreplaceable  video- 
taped performances  on  the  groimds 
that  they  didn't  have  enough  storage 
space  and  they  could  save  money  by 
reusing  the  tape.  Rather  like  Leon- 
ardo Da  Vinci  painting  over  the  Mona 
Lisa  rather  than  buying  a  new  piece 
of  wood.  Fortunately,  Miller's  Alice 
was  shot  on  film  and  even  the  BBC 
couldn't  erase  that. 

The  film  negative  was  lodged  with 
the  British  Film  Institute  (BFI),  and, 
apart  from  a  rare  repeat  of  the  film 
on  the  BBC,  there  it  sat  for  almost 
forty  years.  The  value  of  these  unique 
film  and  television  performances  is 
recognized  much  more  these  days 
and,  at  last,  Miller's  Alice  has  been 
released  on  VHS  tape  and  on  DVD 
by  the  BFI  in  both  European  and 
American  formats.  The  film  transfer  is 
excellent,  both  picture  and  sound 


are  crystal  clear  without  noticeable 
blemishes. 

The  DVD  has,  as  we've  come  to 
expect  in  these  digital  days,  a  certain 
number  of  "extras,"  and  these  include 
a  commentary  by  Miller  which  is  en- 
tertaining and  informative,  if  a  little 
rambling.  There  is  also  a  director's 
biography  and  what  is  described  as  a 
"Stills  Gallery."  Well,  three  photos  in 
fact.  The  DVD  also  includes  the  1903 
version  of  Alice  in  Wonderland  by  Cecil 
Hepworth  (discussed  in  "Hep,  Hep, 
Hooray,"  below). 

The  BFI  may  have  been  a  bit  tardy 
in  releasing  this  after  a  nearly  forty- 
year  wait,  but  a  "Well  Done!"  to  them 
nonetheless. 

'  Wordsworth  wrote  the  Hne  in  1802  and 
published  the  whole  of  the  poem,  "Ode: 
Intimations  of  hnmortalit)'  from  Recol- 
lections of  Early  Childhood,"  in  1807  in 
Poems  in  Two  Volumes.  Incidentally,  the  first 
stanza,  which  ends  with  the  quoted  line, 
begins:  "There  was  a  time  when  meadow, 
grove,  and  stream,  /  The  earth,  and  every 
common  sight,  /  To  me  did  seem  /  Appar- 
elled in  celestial  light,  /  The  glory  and  the 
freshness  of  a  dream." 


HEP,  HEP,  hooray! 

David  Schaefey 

Cecil  Hepworth  in  his  1951  autobi- 
ography describes  the  making  of  the 
very  first  motion  picture  version  of 
Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland.  The 
year  was  1903.' 

...and  then  we  came  to  a 
more  ambitious  effort  in  Alice 
in  Wonderland.  This  was  the 
greatest  adventure,  and  we  did 
the  whole  story  in  800  feet  [of 
film] — the  longest  ever  at  that 
time.  Every  situation  was  dealt 
with,  with  all  the  accuracy  at 
our  command  and  with  rever- 
ent fidelity  to  Tenniel's  famous 
drawings.  I  had  been  married 
about  a  year  and  my  wife,  bro- 
ken-in  to  film  work,  played  the 
part  of  the  White  Rabbit.  Alice 
was  played  by  Mabel  Clark, 
the  little  girl  from  the  cutting 
room,  growing  exasperatingly 
larger  and  smaller  as  she  does 
in  the  book.  The  beautiful  gar- 
den was  the  garden  of  Mount 


40 


Felix,  at  Walton;  the  Duchess, 
the  kitchen,  the  mad  tea  party, 
the  Cheshire  cat,  the  royal  pro- 
cession— all  were  there.  The 
painting  of  the  whole  pack  of 
cards  human  size  was  quite  an 
undertaking  and  the  madly 
comic  trial  scene  at  the  end 
made  a  suitable  and  hilarious 
finale.  ~  Cecil  Hepworth,  Came 
the  Dawn 

Cecil  Hepworth  was  introduced  to 
motion  pictures  when  he  saw  Edison 
"peep  show"  films  being  projected 
through  a  translucent  screen.  "This 
was  a  modern  miracle  I  shall  never 
forget,"  he  wrote.  It  was  only  seven 
years  later  that  his  movie  titled  Alice  in 
Wonderland  W2is  filmed. 

The  Hepworth  company  was  con- 
cerned that  the  paying  public  might 
be  unwilling  to  sit  through  a  ten-min- 
ute viewing.  Therefore,  in  addition  to 
the  ten-minute  version,  they  offered 
four  three-minute  excerpts  from  the 
film:  Alice's  Adventures  in  the  Beautiful 
Garden,  The  Duchess  and  her  Pig-Baby, 
The  Mad  Tea  Party,  and  The  Procession 
of  the  Pack  of  Cards. 

Wlien  my  wife  Maxine  and  I  inher- 
ited my  mother's  Lewis  Carroll  book 
collection  in  1967  we  decided  that  we 
would  branch  out  and  collect  16mm 
versions  of  motion  pictures  relating 
to  Lewis  Carroll.  The  prize,  of  course, 
was  the  very  first  of  these 
films,  Cecil  Hepworth's 
1903  Alice.  In  1975 
we  obtained  a  copy 
of  the  Hepworth  film 
from  the  British  Film 
Institute,  after  receiv- 
ing blessings  from  the 
Museum  of  Modern  Art 
(the  BFI  demanded  it) 
and  the  payment  of  a 
small  royalty  to  Eliza- 
beth Hepworth,  Cecil 
Hepworth's  daughter. 

We  had  been  warned 
that  the  original  was 
in  poor  shape,  and 
our  copy  certainly  con- 
firmed this.  However, 
it  was  in  good  enough 
condition  to  see  that  it 
was  a  charming  film. 
The  ability  to  use  so- 


A  detail  of  the  opening  title 

phisticated  photographic  techniques 
back  in  1903  was  evident  in  the  scenes 
of  Alice  changing  size,  and  the  baby 
turning  into  a  pig. 

Because  of  its  poor  condition,  I 
made  a  copy  of  the  film  that  cut  out 
many  damaged  frames,  converted  it 
so  that  it  could  be  projected  at  sound 
speeds,  and  added  a  sound  track  that 
had  a  description  of  each  scene  as 
annotated  in  the  1903  advertisements 
for  the  film.  Many  of  you  have  seen 
this  version.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Lewis 
Carroll  Society  (UK)  we  projected  the 
film  with  Elizabeth  Hepworth  pres- 


ent. This  led  to  a  friendship  with  Ms. 
Hepworth,  who  subsequently  gave  us 
a  great  deal  of  information  about  her 
father  and  about  the  film. 

The  1903  description  of  the  film 
states  "toned  and  stained  in  various 
beautiful  colors."  WTiat  colors?  Ms. 
Hepworth  supplied  us  with  the  an- 
swers: Calm  scenes,  as  when  Alice  falls 
asleep,  are  tinted  blue;  scenes  of  ac- 
tion such  as  in  the  Duchess's  kitchen 
are  tinted  red.  Other  colors  used 
include  yellow,  brown,  and — for  the 
Cheshire  cat — violet. 

Our  Society  discussed  producing 
a  DVD  of  the  film  (complete  with  the 
tinting)  to  celebrate  its  hundredth 
birthday.  The  BFI,  however,  beat  us 
to  the  punch  by  attaching  the  film 
to  their  DVD  release  of  the  Jonathan 
Miller  Alice  in  Wonderland.'-  An  inter- 
esting commentary  by  Simon  Brown 
of  the  BFI  accompanies  the  Hepworth 
film.  It  is  not  tinted  and  remains  in 
very  poor  shape,  but  the  motion  pic- 
ture is  now  available  to  a  much  wider 
audience  than  ever  before. 

There  have  been  many  techno- 
logical miracles  in  the  century  that 
produced  Alice,  but  still  we  remain 
impressed  with  Hepworth  and  his 
skillful  use  of  the  "modern  miracle" 
of  a  century  ago. 

'  Cecil  Hepworth,  Came  the  Dawn:  Memories  of 
a  Film  Pioneer  (London:  Phoenix  House, 
1951),  29  and  63. 

-  The  BFI  production  re- 
fers to  the  Him  as  "directed 
by  Percy  Snow,"  leaving  off 
the  Hepworth  name  (see 
AX  71.38).  The  American 
release  (by  Public  Media 
hic.)  hasjust  taken  place. 

The  LCSNA  xuould  like  to 
acknowledge  David  Schae- 
fer  and  his  keeping  the 
flame  alive  for  so  many 
years  and  providing  so 
many  of  us  with  our  first 
look  at  this  marvel. 


The  Procession  of  the  Park  of  Cards 


41 


fwMwm 


EXCERPTS  FROM 
THE  NEWLY- PUBLISHED 

Lexuis  Carroll  and  His  Illustrators: 

Collaborations  and  Correspondence, 

1865-1898 

Morton  N.  Cohen 

and 
Edward  Wakeling 

To  acknowledge  this  new  scholarly  publica- 
tion, a  collection  of  letters  from  Carroll  to 
his  illustrators,  the  editors  present  every 
word  he  scripted  concerning  one  chosen 
illustration  along  with  the  Harry  Furniss 
illustration  itself.  The  passage  relevant 
to  that  illustration  has  been  deliberately 
excluded  to  demonstrate  that  even  with  a 
complete  ignorance  of  the  subject,  Carroll's 
letters  are  still  an  enjoyable  read — individ- 
ually entertaining  luith  their  minutiae  and 
together,  enriching  in  their  fullness. 

The  Numbers,  enclosed  in  oblongs, 
refer  to  the  pages  of  mounted  text 
already  in  your  hands... 

51  "Are  not  those  orchises  under  the 
hedge?" 

I  have  tried  a  sketch,  which  I  enclose: 
but  really  my  sketches  come  out  so 
wretchedly  bad,  that  I  must  try  to  con- 
vey my  meaning  by  descriptions.  This 
picture  should  contain  Arthur  and 
Sylvie.  I  have  drawn  Arthur  looking 
sideways,  which  is  a  mistake:  he  ought 
to  be  looking  at  the  spectator,  because 
the  picture  represents  what  the  "I"  of 
the  book  saw,  and  of  course  he  saw 
Arthur  looking  at  him,  while  address- 
ing him.  He  should  seem  to  be  point- 
ing, only,  with  his  stick,  and  should  be 
quite  unconscious  that  he  is  really 


being  pulled  along  by  Sylvie.  I  think 
she  should  pull  rather  harder  than 
I  have  made  her  do.  And  her  figure 
should  be  semi-transparent,  showing 
dimly  whatever  is  behind  her  (a  gate 
or  rail  would  do  very  well),  but  not 
quite  transparent  (see  my  remarks  on 
the  drawing  of  "Nero  holding  thief), 
as,  in  that  case,  she  would  seem  to  be 
behind  the  rail,  instead  oi\n  front  oi 
it."  (June  8,  1893) 

The  paging  is  at  a  standstill  just  now, 
for  want  of  knowing  whether  or  not 
there  is  to  be  a  picture  of  the  invis- 
ible (i.e.  transparent)  Sylvie  leading 
Arthur  by  pulling  his  walking-stick.  I 
have  suggested  such  a  picture  to  you 
(I  think  in  my  letter  dated  June  8)  but 
you  have  not  yet  told  me  whether  you 
think  it  worth  drawing.  If  you  do,  and 
can  tell  me  the  proportions  of  length 
and  width  of  the  picture,  I  can  leave 
a  proper  space  for  it,  and  can  then 
go  on  with  the  paging.  I  am  very  anx- 
ious to  publish,  if  it  be  possible,  next 
Christmas.  (September  8,  1893) 

(93)  S.  pulling  A.  along:  This  looks  all 
right,  except  that  Arthur  oiight  to  be 
looking  in  the  direction  in  which  he 
is  being  pulled.  If  you  look  at  the  text, 
you  will  see  that  he  thinks  he  is  point- 
ing, at  the  orchises,  with  his  stick.... 


I  had  better  tell  you  the  order  in 
which  the  as-yet-unfinished  pictures 
will  be  wanted.  It  is: 

93.  Orchises 

71.  Willie's  Wife... 
(September  30,  1893) 

(93)  Orchises:  This  drawing  is  excel- 
lent, in  every  point  but  one.  And  this  I 
must  ask  you  to  alter,  by  giving  her  a 
little  more  skirt  floating  out  in  front  of 
her.  She  does  look  so  very  nearly  naked, 
with  the  dress  fitting  in  to  the  body  and 
front  of  the  thigh.  You  must  remember 
the  book  has  to  be  seen,  not  only  by 
children,  but  by  their  Mothers:  and 
some  Mothers  are  awfully  particular!  I 
hope  it  won't  give  you  much  trouble:  it 
seems  to  me  that,  by  erasing  about  1/4 
inch  strip  of  shadow,  the  skirt  could  eas- 
ily be  widened  enough  to  satisfy  that  ex- 
orbitant "Mrs.  Gnmdy."  The  sketch  of 
this  figure,  without  the  drapery,  must  be 
quite  lovely.  I  suppose  you  made  one, 
from  the  life?  You  were  good  enough 
to  say  that  I  might  have  your  "studies" 
for  these  pictures.  I'm  quite  looking 
forwards  to  possessing  this.  By  the  way, 
how  old  is  your  model?  And  may  I  have 
her  name  and  address?  My  friend.  Miss 
E.  G.  Thomson,  an  artist  great  in  "fair- 
ies," would  be  glad  to  know  of  her,  I'm 
sure.  (October  12,  1893) 


"Are  not  those  orchises?"  Harry  Furniss 


42 


Carrollian  Notes 


FROM  THE  ANTIPATHIES 

"'Please,  Ma'am,  is  this  New  Zealand 
or  Australia?'"  Now  we  can  answer 
her:  both!  Kate  Lyon  has  founded  the 
Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  New  Zealand 
which,  for  now,  consists  of  a  website 
(www.lcsnz.org)  and  an  online  discus- 
sion forum.  We,  the  Lewis  Carroll  So- 
ciety of  North  America,  welcome  the 
LCSNZ  to  the  sisterhood  of  Carroll 
Societies  already  thriving  in  Australia, 
Canada,  Japan,  and  the  UK. 


ADDENDA,  ERRATA, 
CORRIGENDA,  8c  ILLUMINATA 

A  report  on  A.  S.  W.  Rosenbach's  life 
in  the  article  "Our  Kind  of  Town" 
{KI.  71.9)  said  that  the  original 
manuscript  of  A//V^'5  Adventures  under 
Ground W2LS  "donated... to  the  British 
Library,  where  it  remains  on  display 
at  the  British  Museum  to  this  day." 
Better  if  it  had  said  "donated... to  the 
Library  of  the  British  Museum.  Since 
January  1999,  the  'British  Library,' 
formed  in  1973,  has  exhibited  the  ms. 
at  the  John  Ritblat  (a.k.a.  'Treasures') 
Gallery  in  their  London  St  Pancras 
location." 

The  article  "Crimson  Tidings"  (AT. 
71.36-38)  contained  a  lengthy  quota- 
tion from  Michel  Faber.  It  was  not 
clear  that  the  final  paragraph  was  the 
work  of  the  author.  Matt  Demakos, 
not  Mr.  Faber. 

In  "5if,  sic,  sic"  [AX  71.38]  it  was  er- 
roneously stated  that  the  da  Vinci 
exhibition  reviewed  by  Time  critic 
Robert  Hughes  was  at  NY-MoMA.  It 
was  actually  at  New  York's  Metropoli- 
tan Musevim  of  Art. 

Readers  who  had  difficulty  in  seeing 
the  hidden  faces  in  Carroll's  illustra- 
tion to  Alice's  Adventures  under  Ground 
{KI^  71.43)  refered  to  by  Ruth  Ber- 
man  (XL  71.8)  are  directed  to  the 


publication  of  her  talk,  "Alice  as  Fairy- 
tale and  Non-Fairy-tale"  in  The  Carrol- 
lian 1 1 ,  Spring  2003,  where  they  are 
more  clearly  delineated. 


-^ 


The  venerable  Chicago  Manual  of  Style 
Fifteenth  Edition,  in  discussing  quota- 
tion marks  (section  11.33),  uses  the 
example: 

"Don't  be  absurd!"  said  Henry. 
"To  say  that  'I  mean  what  I 
say'  is  the  same  as  'I  say  what 
I  mean'  is  to  be  as  confused 
as  Alice  at  the  Mad  Hatter's 
tea  party.  You  remember  what 
the  Hatter  said  to  her:  'Not 
the  same  thing  a  bit!  WTiy  you 
might  just  as  well  say  that  "I  see 
what  I  eat"  is  the  same  thing  as 
"I  eat  what  I  see"!'" 


■^ 


Sic,  sic,  sic 

From  Julia  Margaret  Cameron:  A  Critical 
Biography  (Getty  Trust,  2003)  by  Colin 
Ford:  "In  December  1857,  not  long 
before  Lewis  Carroll  took  up  photog- 
raphy, he  wrote  a  parody  of  Longfel- 
low's narrative  poem  Hiaxoatha,  that 
included  a  surprisingly  full  descrip- 
tion of  the  wet  collodion  process..." 
[Beforel] 

"I  think  I  may  be  in  Brigadoon.  Or  I 
could  be  the  WTiite  Knight  napping. 
If  I  am  napping  now,  what  will  hap- 
pen when  I  lie  down  and  dream  that  I 
am  napping?  Perhaps  I  will  turn  into 
Jesse  Colin  Young... The  fog  thickens. 
Dare  I  risk  another  nap?"  asks  colum- 
nist Jon  Carroll  in  the  San  Francisco 
Chronicle,  August  5,  2003. 
[The  Wute Knight?] 

From  The  Gentle  Art  of  Cookery  by  Mrs. 
C.  F.  Leyel  and  Miss  Olga  Hartley 


(1925,  reprinted  by  Chatto  &  Windus, 
1983):  "French  cooks  treat  vegetables 
as  respectfully  as  the  dormouse  did  its 
watch,  and  use  the  best  butter,  which 
makes  a  dish  of  green  vegetables 
scientifically  a  perfect  food,  fit  to  be 
served  as  it  is  in  France  as  a  course  by 
itself." 
[The  dormouse?] 

From  The  Music  of  the  Primes:  Searching 
to  Solve  the  Greatest  Mystery  in  Mathemat- 
icshy  Marcus  du  Sautoy  (HarperCol- 
lins, 2003):  "The  Beaver  in  The  Hunt- 
ing of  the  Snark  arrives  with  'forty-two 
boxes,  all  carefully  packed  /  With  his 
name  painted  clearly  on  each'." 
[  The  Beaver?] 

From  "End  Papers"  by  Catherine 
Porter  in  Antiquarian  Book  Reviexu,  No- 
vember 2003:  "In  2001  Sotheby's  won 
the  collection  of  Alice  Liddell  and 
we  were  introduced  to  the  world  of 
the  WTiite  Rabbit:  Lewis  Carroll  and 
his  devotees.  They  were  an  amazing 
group  of  people,  dedicated,  enthusi- 
astic, often  bordering  on  the  eccen- 
tric, who  knew  far  more  about  Carroll 
than  anyone  else." 

[And  exactly  ivhom  else  were  Carroll  devo- 
tees supposed  to  knoxv  about?] 


m 

PICTURING  DREAMS 

Andrew  Sellon 

"Dreaming  in  Pictures:  The 
Photography  of  Lewis  Carroll" 
The  International  Center  of 
Photography,  New  York 
June  to  September,  2003 
Organized  by  Douglas  R.  Nickel 

"Dreamchild" 
Polixeni  Papapetrou 
PhotoGraphic  Gallery,  New  York 
June  14,  2003  through  July  13,  2003 
Curator:  Alison  Holland 


43 


New  York-based  fans  ofDodgson's 
photography  had  a  rare  treat  this 
summer:  not  one,  but  two  exhibitions 
celebrating  his  art  and  artistry.  One 
was  "Dreaming  in  Pictures"  at  the 
International  Center  of  Photography, 
the  exhibition  of  selected  photo- 
graphs that  was  shown  last  year  in  San 
Francisco  (XL  70.2-4). 
The  other  was  "Dream- 
child,"  a  homage  to 
Dodgson's  images 
and  aesthetic  by  the 
contemporary  photog- 
rapher Polixeni  Papa- 
petrou,  which  showed 
all  too  briefly  at  the 
PhotoGraphic  Gallery 
in  SoHo.  For  a  few 
weeks  in  July,  the  tim- 
ing of  the  exhibitions 
converged  and  it  was 
possible  to  see  both 
in  a  single  day.  This, 
then,  was  the  mission 
that  Patt  Griffin,  Janet 
Jurist,  and  I  took  upon 
ourselves  one  warm, 
sunny  summer  Friday. 
We  decided  to  view 
the  contemporary 
exhibition  first.  After 
strolling  through  the 
Enchanted  Forest  (a 
trendy  little  SoHo 
gift  shop  on  the  same 
block  as  the  gallery), 
we  remembered  our 
names  and  purpose, 
and  located  the  PhotoGraphic  Gal- 
ler)'  at  71  Mercer  Street.  I  had  already 
viewed  most  of  the  exhibition  on  the 
gallery's  web  site,  but  still  was  not 
fully  prepared  for  the  impact  of  the 
enormous,  roughly  43-inch-square  art 
prints  (type  "C"  photographs)  that 
greeted  us  as  we  entered.  Curator 
Alison  Holland  welcomed  us  warmly 
and  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  speak- 
ing with  us  about  the  artist  and  the 
giant  Dodgson-inspired  photographs. 
Ms.  Holland,  like  the  artist,  hails  from 
Australia.'  Although  it  was  not  explic- 
itly discussed  during  our  conversa- 
tion, I  confess  that  the  image  of  Ms. 
Papapetrou,  a  former  lawyer  turned 
photographer,  creating  these  Carrol- 
lian  works  somewhere  in  Alice's  "An- 


tipathies," only  added  to  the  Wonder- 
land atmosphere  of  the  exhibition. 
It  turns  out  that  these  ambitious 
and  beautiful  photographs  are  very 
much  a  family  affair:  the  model  is 
the  artist's  little  daughter  Olympia, 
the  backdrops  for  some  of  the  paint- 
ings (based  on  painted  backgrounds 


"Olympia  as  Irene  MacDonald,  "  after  "It  won 't  come  smooth  "  by 

C.  L.  Dodgson  (1863).  ©2003  Polixeni  Papapetrou  and  used  by  permission. 


from  some  ofDodgson's  nude  pho- 
tographs) are  rendered  by  the  artist's 
husband,  and  many  of  the  costumes 
are  sewn  by  the  artist's  mother.  For 
those  who  have  not  yet  seen  any  of 
Papapetrou 's  "Dreamchild"  photo- 
graphs, they  are  mainly  restagings 
of  some  ofDodgson's  better  known 
photographic  images;  a  handful  are 
variations  or  simply  inspired  by  the 
originals.  One  of  these  last  images, 
that  of  a  little  girl  asleep  by  a  brook 
with  her  hand  lying  gently  on  an 
open  book,  was  actually  suggested  by 
the  six-year-old  model  herself  as  her 
own  tribute  to  Dodgson's  stories. 
The  first  question  that  a  Dodgson  pur- 
ist might  ask,  to  quote  a  certain  cat- 
erpillar, is  "WTiy?"  Here  is  the  artist's 
reply  from  her  press  packet: 


"I  restage  [Dodgson's]  fancy  dress 
photographs  as  they  embody  and 
symbolize  the  themes  that  I  am  fas- 
cinated with,  namely,  the  represen- 
tation of  childhood  and  selfhood 
and  the  boundary  crossing  that 
occurs  in  photography  through 
the  performative  acts  which  take 
place  before  the  cam- 
era. It  is  my  interest  in 
the  portrayal  of  child- 
hood emerging  from 
my  experience  as  a 
mother/artist  and  my 
interest  in  the  histori- 
cal and  contemporary 
representations  of  the 
child  in  art  that  has 
partly  led  me  to  make 
this  work." 

The  press  packet  goes 
on  to  state: 

"In  restaging 
Dodgson's  costume 
dramas  and  the  four 
surviving  nude  pho- 
tographs, Papapetrou 
is  trying  to  present  a 
contemporary  vision 
of  childhood  that  por- 
trays Olympia 's  psycho- 
logical and  physical 
individuality,  but  also 
allows  her  to  remain 
distinctively  child-like. 
Papapetrou's  images 
don't  look  exactly  like 
Dodgson's — the  mise- 
en-scene  has  a  different 
balance  of  theatrical  abstraction 
and  intimacy  and  Olympia's  con- 
sciousness of  boundary-crossing 
is  sharper  and  her  gaze — in  full 
knowledge  of  the  Victorian  exem- 
plars that  she  rehearses — is  more 
intense,  more  knowing,  more 
dreamy,  more  in  touch  with  the 
reasons  for  performing  in  the  pho- 
tographs and  with  the  will  of  the 
mother/artist." 

With  all  due  respect  to  those 
involved,  other  than  the  fact  that 
Dodgson  was  an  intimate  adult  friend 
rather  than  an  actual  parent,  I  would 
not  grant  that  Olympia's  gaze  is  any 
more  intense,  knowing,  dreamy,  or 


44 


"in  touch  with  the  reasons  for  per- 
forming" than  the  gaze  of  his  best 
models,  notably  Xie  Kitchin  and  Alice 
Liddell  herself.  There's  no  question 
that  compelling  intimacy  in  a  model's 
gaze  is  usually  dependent  on  success- 
fully establishing  a  "naked  trust,"  if 
you  will,  between  the  model  and  the 
artist — but  if  anything,  the  press  state- 
ment about  Papapetrou's  work  implic- 
itly points  up  just  how 
remarkable  Dodg- 
son's  own  achieve- 
ment was  in  securing 
that  fragile  trust  from 
so  many  child  models 
without  actually  being 
the  parent. 

Regardless,  Ms. 
Papapetrou  should 
be  roundly  praised 
for  her  achievement 
in  these  vivid  and 
compelling  images. 
Working  in  color, 
and  on  a  scale  that 
Dodgson  could  never 
have  achieved  in  his 
lifetime,  the  artist 
succeeds  in  bring- 
ing something  of 
Dodgson 's  evocative 
waifs  and  their  pecu- 
liar class-  and  culture- 
crossing,  make-believe 
magic  into  the  present 
day.  These  new  works 
are  lovely  to  behold,  haunting  in  a 
Carrollian  way,  and  merit  extended 
viewing.  Wliile  each  of  us  had  a  dif- 
ferent favorite  by  the  end  of  our  visit, 
we  each  wished  we  could  afford  to 
take  home  at  least  one.  My  particular 
favorite  was  the  artist's  version  of  "It 
Won't  Come  Smooth";  it  captures 
the  feel  of  the  Dodgson  original  with 
great  success,  but  also  adds  the  plea- 
sures of  the  unique  little  chair  and  rug 
Papapetrou  chose  for  the  scene — ob- 
jects found  around  the  artist's  house 
and  combined  in  a  serendipitously 
perfect  composition.  The  near-life 
size  of  these  images  allows  you  to  feel 
as  if  you  might  be  able  to  converse 
with  these  pensive  children  and  half 
believe  it  real.  The  color  saturation 
is  magnificent,  and  each  pose  is  ar- 
ranged— lighting,  backdrop, 


costume,  props  and  all — with  a  me- 
ticulousness  that  Dodgson  would  have 
appreciated. 

These  wonderful  images  have 
been  produced  in  extremely  limited 
quantity — only  six  of  each  have  been 
printed  for  U.S.  release — and  at  a 
starting  price  of  $2,500,  they  are  not 
for  the  financially  faint  of  heart.  They 
are,  however,  superb. - 


"Flying  cards,  "  after  the  vriginal  dlustrdtion  by  John  Tenniel. 
Papapetrou  and  used  by  permission. 


After  our  adventures  in  SoHo-land, 
we  headed  to  midtown  for  the  exhibi- 
tion at  The  International  Center  for 
Photography  (ICP).  Janet  had  already 
seen  the  exhibition  in  San  Francisco 
so  she  did  not  remain  with  us  for  the 
whole  visit,  but  this  was  a  first  viewing 
for  Patt  and  me  and  we  luxuriated 
in  it.  Since  the  exhibition's  beauti- 
ful hardcover  companion  volume'  is 
already  widely  available  and  probably 
sitting  on  your  bookshelf  (if  not,  it 
should  be),  I  will  limit  myself  to  shar- 
ing some  specific  subtle  highlights 
that  appealed  to  me  on  a  leisurely 
stroll  through  the  gallery:  the  beauti- 
fully chosen  angle  of  Charles  Terry's 
figure  in  his  seated  pose,  echoed  by 
the  line  of  the  fabric  piping  on  his 
clothing;  the  palpable  longing  under 


Annie  Coates'  blank  countenance; 
the  wonderfully  androgynous  pose  of 
James  "Jemmy"  Sant,  and  the  elegant 
composition  of  the  positive  and  nega- 
tive space  around  him;  the  way  Xie 
Kitchin  and  her  brother  George  al- 
most become  a  single  being  thanks  to 
the  artful  use  of  the  fabrics  in  which 
they  are  draped.  The  list  could  go  on 
and  on. 

It  was  also  interest- 
ing for  me,  both  as 
a  Carrollian  and  as  a 
photographer,  to  see 
single  images  that 
bespoke  other  voices: 
the  image  of  Florence 
Maude  Terry  from 
July  17,  1865  looks 
almost  like  a  shot  by 
Julia  Margaret  Cam- 
eron (of  all  people); 
the  well-known  pose 
of  Ellen  Terry  at 
the  window  seems 
strongly  influenced  by 
the  work  of  Dodgson 's 
lesser-known  contem- 
porary Lady  Hawar- 
den  (whose  work  he 
admired^  and  who 
had  a  strong  fondness 
for  photographing 
reflections);  and  the 
1872  image  of  Julia 
Arnold  seated  bare- 
legged on  a  unmade 
bed  is  so  erotically  charged  as  to  be  al- 
most shockingly  contemporary.  Wliile 
it  was  disappointing  that  a  number  of 
the  prints  on  display  are  actually  re- 
strikes  rather  than  originals,  the  exhi- 
bition is  admirable  for  the  refreshing 
balance  of  familiar  and  unfamiliar 
images  selected. 

But  in  a  way,  the  best  part  of  the 
"Dreaming  in  Pictures"  exhibition 
may  actually  be  the  virtual  photo 
albimis  through  which  you  can 
browse  at  your  leisure.  These  are 
page-by-page  recreations  of  three 
of  his  own  photo  albums,  rendered 
exactly  as  Dodgson  himself  displayed 
them.  Here,  the  familiar  little  girls  are 
seen  blended  in  amongst  a  healthy 
assortment  of  fellow  scholars,  family, 
friends,  celebrities,  and  the  occasional 
skeleton  or  landscape.  Intellectually  I 


©2003  I'olixeni 


45 


knew  this  to  be  the  case,  but  a  picture 
seen  in  context  is  worth  more  than 
any  amount  of  words  that  any  scholar 
or  curator  might  supply.  If  only  these 
virtual  albums  could  be  made  avail- 
able on  CD-ROM!  There  should  be 
prizes  for  Douglas  R.  Nickel  and  all 
involved  with  this  exhibition.  If  you 
have  not  already  seen  it,  it  is  still  mak- 
ing its  way  around  the  country  and 
should  not  be  missed.''  Good  as  the 
exhibition  catalog  is,  the  photographs 
will  speak  to  you  even  more  vividly 
and  deeply  in  person. 

Editor's  comment 

Much  has  been  written  about  the 

"Dreaming  in  Pictures"  exhibition 

{KL  70.2-4),  but  a  bit  of  additional 

information  about  "Dreamchild"  is  in 

order: 

At  a  far  remove  from  literal  appro- 
priations analagous  to  those  of  Pierre 
Menard, '  Papapetrou's  exquisitely 
theatrical  reenactments  are  creative 
reimaginings  of  the  tableaux  created 
by  Mr.  Dodgson,  enriched  with  and 
informed  by  our  modern  worldview. 

Born  in  Melbourne  in  1960  of 
Greek  immigrant  parents,  Papapetrou 
received  a  BA/LLB  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Melbourne  in  1984,  received 
an  MA  in  Media  Arts  from  RMIT 
University  and  is  "currently  two-thirds 
of  the  way  through  a  PhD  at  Monash 
University  that  looks  at  Carroll's  pho- 
tography." She  has  been  widely  exhib- 
ited in  solo  and  group  shows  and  is 
particularly  known  for  her  studies  of 
Elvis  fans  ("Elvis  Immortal"),  fashion 
and  power  ("Authority"),  drag  queens 
("Searching  for  Marilyn"),  bodybuild- 
ers ("Fallible  Archetypes"),  and  the 
many  aspects  of  childhood  and  iden- 
tity ("Phantomwise"). 

One  of  Australia's  premier  pho- 
tographers, Papapetrou  has  been 
the  recipient  of  many  awards  in  her 
field.  Having  once  been  a  corporate 
lawyer,  she  now  devotes  all  her  time 
to  her  art,  her  marriage  (to  artist  and 
critic  Robert  Nelson,  the  creator  of 
the  background  paintings  used  in  her 
photographs),  and  her  two  children. 

She  writes  "I  am  an  avid  Carroll 
enthusiast  and  you  may  be  interested 
to  know  that  I  am  currently  photo- 
graphically re-staging  the  Alice  in  Won- 
derland and  Through  the  Looking-Glass 
stories  based  on  the  illustrations  of  Sir 
46 


John  Tenniel.  Again,  my  six-year-old 
daughter  Olympia  is  the  model  for 
the  work." 

Papapetrou's  U.S.  representative 
is  Alison  Holland,  71  Mercer  Street, 
New  York,  NY  10013,  alison@photo- 
graphicgallery.com;  (212)  925-4508. 
Her  Australian  representative  is  the 
Kalli  Rolfe  Contemporary  Art  Gal- 
lery, 909  Drummond  Street  North 
Carlton,  3054  Melbourne,  Australia.; 
+61  3  9387  6939,  +61  3  9380  8869  fax; 
krolfe@ozemail.com.au. 

'  Her  lecture  on  the  topic  is  available 
on  the  gallery's  web  site  at  w'^^'w.alison 
holland.com/lectures/poli_lecture.html. 

^  To  see  a  selection  of  the  images  yourself, 
visit  the  exhibition  at  the  galleiy's  web 
site  at  www.alisonholland.com/polixeni_ 
papapetrou.htm.  "It's  like  seeing  the 
offspring  of  old  friends." 

^  Douglas  R.  Nickel,  Dreaming  in  Pictures:  The 
Photography  ofLexuis  Carroll  (San  Francisco: 
San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 
2002). 

4  Charles  Dodgson,  June  23-25,  1864,  Ed- 
ward Wakeling,  Lewis  Carroll's  Diaries:  The 
Private  Journals  of  Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson 
(Clifford,  England:  The  Lewis  Carroll 
Society,  2001),  4:314-18. 

^  The  exhibition  is  currently  showing  at  The 
Art  Institute  of  Chicago  and  will  end  its 
four-city  run  there  in  January  2004. 

^  Jorge  Luis  Borges,  "Pierre  Menard,  autor 
del  Quijote"  in  Eljardin  de  senderos  que  se 
bijurcan  (Buenos  Aires:  Sur,  1941) 


0m. 


THE  DODGSON  CONDENSATION 

Francine  F.  Abeles 

For  two  days,  June  29  and  30,  2003, 
mathematicians  and  computer  sci- 
entists gathered  at  The  Institute  for 
Defense  Analyses'  Center  for  Com- 
munications Research  in  Princeton, 
New  Jersey,  to  belatedly  honor  David 
P.  Robbins  on  the  occasion  of  his 
sixtieth  birthday  (the  previous  August 
12).'  In  the  early  1980s,  Robbins  and 
his  associate,  Howard  Rumsey,  took 
the  notion  of  permutation  matrices 
and  generalized  it  to  alternating  sign 
matrices  which  led  the  way  to  the 
proof  of  the  Alternating  Sign  Matrix 
(ASM)  conjecture,  an  extraordinarily 
difficult  problem  that  took  fifteen 
years  to  solve.  Robbins  and  Rumsey's 
study  of  Dodgson's  condensation 
method  for  computing  determinants 
led  them  to  invent  ASMs.-^ 

Of  the  six  hour-long  invited  pa- 
pers, including  one  by  Robbins,  two 


were  given  by  the  mathematicians 
who  finally  proved  the  ASM  con- 
jecture: Doron  Zeilberger  ("David 
Robbins's  Art  of  Guessing")  and  Greg 
Kuperberg  ("Symmetry  Classes  of 
Alternating  Sign  Matrices").  Robbins' 
paper,  "A  Conjecture  Concerning  Ap- 
proximate Dodgson  Condensation," 
dealt  with  the  division-by-zero  prob- 
lem in  Dodgson's  algorithm. 

The  other  three  papers  were 
presented  by  mathematicians  whose 
work  is  directly  connected  to  the  ASM 
conjecture.  George  Andrews,  who 
worked  on  descending  plane  parti- 
tions (DPPs),  which  Robbins,  Rumsey, 
and  William  Mills  tied  to  the  ASM 
problem,  discussed  a  related  conjec- 
ture. Further  work  by  Robbins  on 
DPPs  in  the  form  of  totally  symmetric 
self-complementary  plane  partitions 
(TSSCPPs)  deepened  the  insights  that 
ultimately  would  lead  to  the  proof  of 
the  ASM  conjecture.  Bill  Doran,  who 
provided  the  first  contribution  to  the 
TSSCPP  problem  later  solved  by  An- 
drews, discussed  these  themes. 

The  third  paper,  given  by  Jim 
Propp,  described  his  own  current 
work  and  that  of  others  who  are  using 
Dodgson's  condensation  method  in 
new  ways,  particularly  asynchronous 
Dodgson  condensation  and  the 
octahedron  recurrence,  and  a  new 
analogue  of  Dodgson  condensation 
(the  cube  recurrence)  the  true  sig- 
nificance of  which,  Propp  adds,  is  still 
tinclear.  In  recent  publications,  by 
Sergei  Fomin  and  Andrei  Zelevinsky 
(2002),  and  David  Speyer  (2003), 
asynchronous  Dodgson  condensation 
is  used  in  connection  with  Laurent 
polynomials.'^ 

In  the  long  breaks  between  talks, 
several  participants  expressed  keen 
interest  in  knowing  more  about  Dodg- 
son on  a  personal  level,  especially 
about  his  other  mathematical  work 
and  his  photography.  It  was  an  excit- 
ing experience  for  me  to  be  in  this 
setting,  knowing  that  Dodgson  began 
it  all  in  1866. 

'  Sad  to  report,  Dr.  Robbins  died  on  Sep- 
tember 4,  shortly  after  this  celebration. 

'^  See  Francine  F.  Abeles,  "Charles  L. 
Dodgson  and  the  Solution  of  the  Al- 
ternating Sign  Matrix  Conjecture,"  KL 
62.7-9  for  a  more  complete  story. 
See  Propp's  web  site  (abel.math.har\ard. 
edu/~propp)  for  more  information. 


BOOKS 

The  wonderfully  rich  mono- 
chrome illustrations  to 
Wonderland  by  lassen  Ghi- 
uselev,  originally  published 
in  German  (Aufbau-Verlag, 
2000),  are  now  available  in  an 
English-language  edition  (Ve- 
rona, NJ:  Simply  Read,  2003). 
Ghiuselev's  stroke  of  genius 
was  to  create  a  single  drawing 
in  which  the  entire  story  can 
be  absorbed  in  a  glance,  and 
from  which  the  individual 
pictures  are  culled.  ISBN 
1894965000.  $30. 

Through  the  Looking-Glass  (Ryazan, 
Russia:  Uzorochje,  2003),  with  il- 
lustrations by  Tatiana  lanovskaia, 
a  talented  Russian  emigre  now 
living  in  Canada,  can  be  ordered 
directly  from  the  artist.  Only  200 
were  printed.  US  $20  for  the 
book;  greeting  cards  are  also  avail- 
able. Tatiana  lanovskaia,  25  Black 
Hawkway,  North  York,  Ontario, 
Canada  M2R  3L5;  416.650-1871; 
bianovski@sympatico.ca. 

The  Darkroom:  Photograph'^  and  the 
Theatre  of  Desire  by  Anne  Marsh 
(Melbourne:  Macmillan,  2003).  The 
section  "Photography  and  Desire: 
Nineteenth  Century  Phantasms  and 
Fantastic  Surrealism"  contains  an 
essay  "Lewis  Carroll:  Making  Desire 
and  (the)  Performing  Girl"  and 
also  discusses  Polixeni  Papapetrou 
(see  pp.  43-46)  in  a  later  essay  "The 
Child  and  the  Archive:  History  Re- 
visited." 

Readers  in  Wonderland:  The  Liberating 
Worlds  of  Fantasy  Fiction  From  Dorothy 
to  Harry  Potter  hy  Deborah  O'Keefe 
(New  York  &:  London:  Continuum, 
2003)  considers  fantasy  fiction  pub- 
lished since  1950,  along  with  a  few 
notable  older  titles.  Lewis  Carroll 
and  the  A//V^  books  are  mentioned 
often. 

Kiddie  Lit:  The  Cultural  Construction  of 
Children's  Literature  in  America  by  Bev- 
erly Lyon  Clark  (Baltimore:  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Press,  2003)  con- 
tains a  chapter  entitled  "The  Case 
of  British  Fantasy  Imports:  Alice  and 
Han-y  in  America." 


drawings.  See  philosophy. wad 
sworth.com. 

The  Frumious  Bandersnatch  by 
Ed  McBain  (New  York:  Simon 
&  Schuster,  2004)  is  a  police 
thriller  that  involves  a  young 
pop  singer  who  puts  "Jabber- 
wocky"  to  music  and  comes  to 
a  bad  end. 


■^ 


Mirror  Mirror:  A  History  of  the  Human 
Love  Affair  with  Reflection  (New  York: 
Basic  Books,  2003)  by  Mark  Pender- 
grast  makes,  as  one  might  imagine, 
much  use  of  Looking-Glass. 

In  a  new  children's  picture  book, 
Miss  Smith 's  Incredible  Storybook,  writ- 
ten and  illustrated  by  Michael  Gar- 
land (New  York:  Dutton,  2003),  Won- 
derland and  Oz  characters  appear. 
"The  illustrations  are  particularly 
nice."  ~  Angelica  Carpenter. 

The  Effect  of  Living  Backwards  by  Heidi 
Julavits  (New  York:  Putnam,  2003) 
does  have  a  Carrollian  title  and 
epigraph;  the  principal  character  is 
named  Alice;  her  sister,  Edith;  and  the 
terrorist,  Bruno,  but  that's  about  it. 

Prunella 's  Adventures  in  Wonderland? 
Customized  Classics  will  print  a  pa- 
perback for  you  of  Wonderland  with 
any  girl's  name  globally  substituted 
for  Alice,  including  on  the  cover. 
They  also  offer  Romeo  and  Juliet  (giv- 
ing Brad  and  Helen  as  an  example), 
Moby  Dick  ("you"  can  be  Ahab,  Ish- 
mael,  or  even  the  whale)  and  similar 
desecrations  of  Conan  Doyle  and 
Kipling.  $20.  www.customizedclassics. 
com/alice.asp. 

Alice  in  Wonderland  and  the  World 
Trade  Center  Disaster:  Why  the  Official 
Story  of  9-11  is  a  Monumental  Lie 
(Ryde,  Isle  of  Wight,  U.K.:  Bridge  of 
Love  Publications,  2002).  Conspiracy 
nut  David  Icke  thinks  the  whole 
thing  was  a  setup. 

The  2004  Philosophy  &  Religion  Cata- 
log from  Thomson/Wadsworth  is 
illimiinated  with  the  Rackham  Alice 


ARTICLES 

"Alice  in  Wonderland:  A 
Fashion  Fairy  Tale,"  a  25-page 
spread  of  haute  couture  de- 
signed by  the  fashion  world's  elite, 
photographed  by  Annie  Leibovitz 
and  starring  the  leggy  beauty  Natalia 
Vodianova,  in  Vogue,  December  2003. 

"Philip  Conklin  Blackburn:  An 
Underappreciated  Lewis  Carroll 
Scholar"  by  Charlie  Lovett  and  "See- 
ing Photographs  in  Comfort:  The 
Social  Uses  of  Lewis  Carroll's  Photo- 
graph Albums"  by  Diane  Waggoner 
in  the  Princeton  University  Library 
Chronicle  62  No.  3,  Spring  2001  (but 
just  now  published)  in  an  issue  dedi- 
cated to  the  memory  of  Alexander 
Wainwright. 

Elain  Ostiy's  article,  "Magical 
Growth  and  Moral  Lessons;  or.  How 
the  Conduct  Book  Informed  Victo- 
rian and  Edwardian  Children's  Fan- 
tasy," in  The  Lion  and  the  Unicorn  27, 
No.  1,  Jan.  2003,  pp.  27-56,  contains 
a  five-page  section  on  Wonderland. 

The  "Techsploitation"  column  by 
Annalee  Newitz  in  the  San  Francisco 
Bay  Guardian  37,  No.  40,  July  2-14, 
2003,  entitled  "Sex  in  the  Library," 
contained  some  baseless  slander 
about  Mr.  Dodgson's  proclivities, 
in  relation  to  the  writer's  youthful 
discovery  of  the  book  of  Dodgson's 
nude  photographs  of  children.  San- 
dor  Burstein,  past  president  of  the 
LCSNA,  attempted  to  set  her  straight 
in  a  letter  published  in  the  next  issue 
(No.  41,  July  9-15).  She,  in  turn,  at- 
tempted to  rebut  him  by  asking  if  he 
would  dare  send  a  copy  through  the 
U.S.  mails;  apparently  she  was  not 
aware  of  the  respected  place  of  the 
book  in  question — Morton  Cohen's 
Lewis  Carrol rs  Photographs  of  Nude 
Children  (Philadelphia:  Rosenbach, 


47 


1978;  retitled  Lewis  Carroll,  Photogra- 
pher of  Children:  Four  Nude  Studies  and 
published  commercially  by  Clarkson 
N.  Potter  in  1979) — in  the  academic, 
photographic  studies,  and  Carrol- 
lian  universes.  There  the  matter  was 
dropped. 

Somerset  Studio  7,  Issue  4,  July/ Aug 
2003.  A  magazine  devoted  to  "paper 
arts  with  rubber  stamping  and  letter- 
ing-art techniques"  featured  an  Alice- 
themed  issue. 

"The  History  of  Lewis  Carroll's  'The 
Game  of  Logic' "  by  Clare  Imholtz  in 
The  Papers  of  the  Bibliographical  Society 
o/AmmVfl  97:2,  June  2003. 

"The  Hunting  of  the  Snark"  by  Laura 
Miller  in  "The  Last  Word"  column, 
New  York  Times  Book  Review,  Octo- 
ber 5,  2003,  discussed  the  website 
ww\v.  believermag.com/snarkwatch, 
which  allows  postings  about  "snarky" 
(unduly  nasty)  book  reviews. 

Children 's  Literature  31  (the  annual  of 
the  Modern  Language  Association 
Division  on  Children's  Literature 
and  the  Children's  Literature  As- 
sociation), 2003,  contains  Jennifer 
Geer's  "All  Sorts  of  Pitfalls  and  Sur- 
prises: Competing  Views  of  Idealized 
Girlhood  in  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice 
Books." 

Tlie  Sea  Fairy:  In  Celebration  of  Vintage 
Illustrated  Children 's  Books,  Issue  28, 
Nov/Dec  2003  contains  "A  Trip  to  Ox- 
ford" by  the  editor,  Liz  Holderman. 

"Tools  of  the  Trickster's  Trade"  by 
Dustin  Eaton  in  Parabola:  Myth,  Tradi- 
tion, and  tlie  Search  for  Meaning,  Winter 
2003,  discusses  Carroll's  use  of  trick- 
ster figures. 

% 

CYBERSPACE 

The  International  Children's  Digi- 
tal Library  at  \vww.icdlbooks.org  is 
a  compilation  of  digitized  picture 
books  from  the  world's  various  cul- 
tures (imaged  page  by  page,  not  as 
text).  It  has  Wonderland'''r&X.o\A  in 
words  of  one  syllable"  (actually,  many 
words  are  simply  hyphenated)  by  J. 
C.  Gorham  (A.L.  Burt,  1905)  and 
also  a  volume  illustrated  by  Gordon 
Robinson  (S.  Gabriel,  1916). 


48 


The  included  starter  texts  of  Scan- 
Soft's  Dragon  Naturally  Speaking  7 
(speech-to-text  software)  contain 
Wonderland. 

Fans  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  handwrit- 
ing and  dingbat  fonts  should  know 
that  they're  back  in  cyberspace  after 
a  long  absence,  at  www.ezork.com/ 
carrollfont/. 

"Alice  in  WWWland",  a  new  e-zine  at 
ww^.aliceinw^vwland.com. 

"The  Hunting  of  the  Snipe,"  a 
parody  using  characters  from  MTV's 
"Daria"  cartoon,  www.outpost- 
daria.com/fanfic/daria_in_wonder 
land.txt. 

"Alice  in  Blunderland,"  an  illustrated 

parody  of  scientific  blimders,  from 

the  New  Internationalist, 

No.  182,  April  1988,  at  www.newint. 

org/issuel82/simply.htm. 

"Alice  Doesn't  Vote  Here  Anymore" 
from  Mother  Jones,  March/ April  1998. 
www.motheijones.com/mother_ 
jones/MA98/lind.html. 

A  picture  of  "Alice's  Caterpillar" 
from  the  Wildwood  Farm  Nursery 
and  Sculpture  Garden  in  Kenwood, 
Calif.,  at  www.wildwoodmaples.com/ 
wildwoodfarm/sculpture/hookah_ 
large.jpg. 

A  good  portal  to  the  lives  of  Miss  Lid- 
dell  and  Mr  Dodgson  in  Oxford  can 
be  found  at  www.aliceinoxford.net. 

Take  a  virtual  trip  through  the  Alice 
in  Wonderland  ride  at  Disneyland 
(Windows  MediaPlayer;  audio  only) : 
www.disneylandsource.com/fantasy/ 
alice.html. 

A  recently  founded  association  of 
new  Lewis  Carroll  studies  known  as 
"Contrariwise,"  which  consists  of  the 
"revisionist"  critics  Pascale  Renaud- 
Grosbras,  Hugues  Lebailly,  Karoline 
Leach,  John  Tufail,  Mike  Leach,  and 
Jenny  Woolf,  is  constructing  a  schol- 
arly web  site  devoted  to  a  re-exami- 
nation of  the  life  and  works  of  C.  L. 
Dodgson.  Their  URL  is  www.looking 
forlewiscarroll.com  and  it  includes 
sections  on  the  growth  of  the  image, 
on  reprints  of  some  of  the  original 
articles  that  set  in  motion  this  re-ex- 
ploration, and  on  new  writings  on  this 
topic.  We  will  be  looking  at  this  site  in 
greater  depth  in  the  next  issue. 


CONFERENCES  AND  LECTURES 

The  fall  meeting  of  the  L.C.S.  Can- 
ada, September  13,  2003  in  Toronto 
featured  a  talk  by  Fernando  Soto 
on  "Blake,  Carroll,  MacDonald,  and 
Metamorphoses:  From  Worm  to 
ChrysAlice  to  Sylvie"  and  a  screening 
of  Andy  Malcolm  and  George  Pas- 
tic's  film,  now  titled  "Sincerely  Yours, 
Lewis  Carroll"  (AX  70.3). 

An  illustrated  lecture,  "The  Art  and 
Flair  of  Mary  Blair,"  by  John  Cane- 
maker,  the  author  of  the  book  of 
the  same  name  (New  York:  Disney/ 
Hyperion,  2003)  was  part  of  New 
York  MoMA's  film  program  (Decem- 
ber 5  and  6).  Mary  Blair  (1911-1978) 
was  not  an  animator,  but  a  concept 
artist  who  "conceptualized  costumes, 
characters,  look,  color,  and  interest- 
ing ways  to  get  into  and  out  of  nar- 
rative. ...  Her  own  drawing  style,  the 
opposite  of  Disney's,  was  flat,  anti-re- 
alist, faux  naif."  Although  Disney  did 
not  adopt  her  overall  design  for  his 
film  oi  Alice  in  Wonderland,  he  used 
several  of  her  conceptions  for  key 
sequences. 


EXHIBITIONS 

Mary  Kline-Misol's  A/ic^  paintings 
{KL  66.13  and  front  cover)  were  on 
exhibit  in  the  "Five  Women  Explore 
the  Figure"  show  at  the  Shelley  Hol- 
zemer  Gallery  in  Minneapolis  in  Au- 
gust, and  others  are  on  permanent 
rotational  display  at  the  ArtHouse  in 
Des  Moines.  "Kline-Misol  discovers 
Alice  in  Wonderland  imagery  in  her 
musings  on  daily  life  that  incorpo- 
rate the  patterns  and  textures  of  the 
nineteenth-century  symbolists  and 
the  twentieth-century  Nabis  Bonnard 
and  Vuillard.  Her  imagery  draws  the 
viewer  into  a  fantasy  world  at  the 
edge  of  dream."  ~  Wesley  Pulkka, 
visual  arts  critic  for  the  Albuquerque 
Journal. 

The  City  of  San  Francisco  (Hon.  Wil- 
lie Brown,  proprietor)  proclaimed 
October  24th  "Grace  Slick  Day"  in 
conjunction  with  the  Hotel  Monaco's 
unveiling  of  two  suites:  one,  in  the 
architectural  sense,  is  a  guestroom 
that  has  been  transformed  into  an 
"interactive  music  shrine"  to  her 


days  with  thejeffersons  (Starship 
and  Airplane),  with  rates  starting  at 
$239;  and  two,  in  the  artistic  sense,  a 
two-day  showing  of  her  "Wonderland 
Suite"  often  acrylic  (ad^-based!) 
paintings  of  the  White  Rabbit  and 
other  characters,  www.monaco- 
sf.com. 

"Alice  in  Underland"  at  the  Libreria 
Macondo  in  Caracas,  Venezuela, 
Oct.-Dec.  2003,  "an  interdisciplin- 
ary exhibit,  featuring  photos  from 
Rigoberto  Rodriguez  and  texts 
from  the  local  literary  group  Texto 
Sentido,  is  part  of  the  event  'Mes 
de  la  Fotografia  Caracas.'  The  ex- 
hibit offers  an  adult's  point  of  view 
of  Lewis  Carroll's  texts,  and  pro- 
poses an  exquisite  game  of  philo- 
sophical eroticism."  See  www.enter- 
art.com/rigoberto/obras.htm  and 
www.textosentido.org. 

The  spectacular  interactive  exhibit 
from  the  Children's  Discovery  Mu- 
seum of  San  Jose  (currently  at  the 
Minnesota  Children's  Museum  in 
St.  Paul  from  January  through  Sep- 
tember, 2004)  is  booked  through 
2007.  However,  your  local  museum 
can  rent  it  after  that.  By  the  way, 
you  can  also  rent  an  18'  illumi- 
nated White  Rabbit  inflatable  at 
the  same  time.  Or  just  visit  them 
interactively  at  www.cdm.org/p/ 
viewPage.asp?mlid=  153. 

"Leonarda  da  Vinci:  The  Divine  and 
the  Grotesque,"  drawings  from  the 
Royal  Collection  at  Windsor  Castle, 
on  display  from  May  9  to  November 
9  in  London  at  the  Queen's  Gallery 
included  the  red-chalk  drawing  la- 
beled "The  bust  of  a  grotesque  old 
woman  (c.  1510-20?),"  attributed  to 
Leonardo's  pupil  Francesco  Melzi,  as 
a  copy  of  a  lost  original  by  Leonardo. 
The  information  plate  beside  the 
drawing  states  that  Quentin  Massys 
painted  several  portraits  copying  this 
drawing,  including  the  well-known 
one  at  the  National  Gallery  (Lon- 
don) said  to  have  inspired  Tenniel's 
Ugly  Duchess.  See  Rancher's  The 
Tenniel Illustrations  to  the  '"Alice" Books 
(Columbus:  Ohio  State  University 
Press,  1985),  Chapter  Four,  for  the 
whole  story. 


PERFORMANCES  NOTED 

The  Stark  Ravens  Historical  Players, 
a  "consortium  of  talented  perform- 
ers who  produce  hilarious  and  high- 
quality  musical  historical  theater 
specializing  in  abbreviated  classics 
that  are  sure  to  please"  won  awards 
at  the  San  Francisco  Fringe  Festival 
and  the  Dickens  Fair  in  2002  with 
their  Alice  in  Wonderland.  The  show 
is  temporarily  retired,  but  look  for  a 
revival.  A  tuneful  CD  is  available  at 
www.Starkravens.com. 

Jabberwocky,  a  combined  version  of 
Wonderland  and  Looking-Glass  by  the 
We  Players  in  Stanford,  CA,  May 
2003,  was  an  outdoor  play  in  which 
the  audience  walked  from  scene  to 


The  Trials  of  Alice  in  Wonderland,  a 
musical  by  the  "TADA!"  children's 
theater  troupe  (all  performers  are 
between  8  and  18),  CAP21  Theater, 
New  York  City,  July  and  August  2003. 

In  the  "Blueprint"  emerging  direc- 
tors' summer  one-act  play  series, 
Eric  Powers  weighs  in  on  the  dark 
side  with  Alice:  Wliat  Is  the  Fun?,  a 
"deconstruction  and  updating  staged 
with  an  eclectic  mishmash  of  music, 
dance,  costumes,  and  props  and  fea- 
turing a  rotation  of  actors  portraying 
Alice  throughout  the  evening."  At 
ihc  ()nt()l()gi{  al-l  iv.stcri<-  TlieaKr  in 
New  York  City,  August  2003.  A  review 
is  online  at  www.villagevoice.com/ 
issues/0332/russo.php. 

Alice  in  Wonderland,  adapted  by 
Brainerd  Duffield,  at  the  Napa  Valley 
(CA)  College  Theatre,  November 
15-16. 

Alice  in  Wonderland,  written  by  Joe 
McDonough  and  David  Kisor,  in 
revival  at  The  Ensemble  Theatre  of 
Cincinnati,  December  3-28. 


AUCTIONS 

A  live  auction  at  PBA  Galleries  (Sale 
267:  July  10,  2003,  San  Francisco) 
had  a  lot  of  Oz  and  a  number  of 
Carroll  titles.  Description  and  prices 
realized  are  at  www.pbagalleries.com. 

Bloomsbury  Book  Auctions  (Sale 
464:  July  10,  2003,  London)  had  an 
1866  Wonderland  "in  the  original 
decorated  red  cloth,  rebacked,"  esti- 
mated at  £700-1000,  which  sold  for 
£3,565  ($5,935).  www.bloomsbury- 
book-auct.com. 

Swann  Auction  galleries  (Sale 
1981:  October  21,  2003,  New  York) 
had  an  auction  of  nineteenth-  and 
twentieth-centuiy  photography. 
Dodgson's  famed  1858  photo- 
graph of  Edith,  Lorina,  and  Alice 
Liddell  on  a  daybed  went  for 
$7,000  (estimate  was  $10-15,000). 
www.swanngalleries.com. 

Illustration  House  (Autumn  Premier 
Auction:  November  15,  2003,  New 
York)  had  an  Arthur  Rackham  draw- 
ing of  the  Ace  of  Clubs  executioner. 
Estimated  at  $7-9,000;  it  sold  for 
$7,312.  www.illustrationhouse.com. 

Sotheby's  (Sale  L03409:  December 
11,  2003,  London)  had  several  in- 
scribed editions,  and  a  set  of  three 
letters  "apparently  unpublished" 
addressed  to  the  Hardings,  in  which 
Dodgson  seeks  the  acquaintance  of 
a  young  girl  he  met  on  the  seaside. 
In  the  third  of  them,  he  admits  to 
being  Lewis  Carroll.  Estimated  at 
£6,000-8000,  it  did  not  sell.  They 
also  auctioned  a  folio  (#12  of  50)  of 
Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland  with 
42  original  copper  plate  engravings 
by  Didier  Mutel  (Paris:  Didier  Mutel, 
2002):  The  illustrations  "appear  as 
ghosts  of  the  drawings  of  John  Tenn- 
iel, figures  liberated  from  the  image 
of  a  sweet  and  pretty  little  Alice...  A 
combination  of  Japanese  Seki  Shu 
Shi  paper  and  Arches  Vellum  allows 
interaction  between  the  traditional 
and  the  contemporary  through 
translucent  paper.  Each  page  is 
printed  in  a  specific  color  and  each 
copy  of  the  book  is  therefore  com- 
posed of  550  etched  prints  superim- 
posed and  ordered  in  a  sequence." 
Esdmated  at  £1,500-2,000,  it  sold  for 
£2,280  ($3,979). 

49 


MEDIA 

Buena  Vista  Home  Entertainment 
has  announced  a  new  two-disc  Dis- 
ney Alice  In  Wonderland:  Masterpiece 
Edition  DVD  to  be  released  on  Janu- 
ary 27(Dodgson's  172"''  birthday!) 
2004  with  a  retail  price  of  $29.99. 
The  disks  will  be  remastered  1.33: 
1  full  screen  transfers  with  Dolby 
Digital  5.1  surround  tracks,  all-new 
introductions,  the  "One  Hour  in 
Wonderland"  (Disney's  very  first  ap- 
pearance on  television,  broadcast  on 
Christmas  Day,  1952)  and  "The  Fred 
Waring  Show"  specials,  "An  Alice 
Comedy:  Alice's  Wonderland"  and 
"Operation  Wonderland"  featurettes, 
abandoned  concepts,  deleted  story- 
boards,  song  demos,  an  art  gallery, 
"Virtual  Wonderland  Party"  activities, 
two  sing-alongs,  the  "Adventures 
in  Wonderland"  interactive  game, 
a  bonus  "Through  the  Mirror"  ani- 
mated short,  and  theatrical  trailers. 
It  is  nearly  identical  to  the  Laserdisc 
release,  although  lacking  some  Kath- 
erine  Beaumont  featurettes. 

The  Simpsons  episode  313  "Moe  Baby 
Blues,"  originally  aired  May  18,  2003, 
had  bartender  Moe  Szyslak  babysit- 
ting Lisa.  He  looks  at  the  book  she  is 
reading.  Moe:  "Alice  in  Wonderland? 
Must  be  a  takeoff  from  that  Alice  in 
Underpants  movie  I  saw." 

At  the  end  of  the  Alias  episode  "Re- 
union," originally  aired  October 
12,  2003,  "Syd"  (Jennifer  Garner) 
returns  home  after  many  an  adven- 
ture. Her  new  romantic  interest, 
CIA  agent  Eric  Weiss,  has  bought 
her  a  present:  Alice's  Adventures  in 
Wonderland,  to  replace  the  one  ("a 
favorite")  she  lost  when  her  apart- 
ment burned  down.  "It's  the  third 
edition,"  he  says,  "I  couldn't  afford 
the  first." 

On  the  Jeopardy  game  show  (a  "Kids' 
edition")  on  September  26,  2003, 
the  category  was  "Classic  Literature" 
and  the  "answer"  was  "another 

NAME  FOR  A  MIRROR;  ALICE  WENT 

'throu(;h'  ONE."  None  of  the  chil- 
dren (Matt,  Becca  and  Josh)  rang 
in.  Host  Alex  Trebek  said  "Alice 
Through  the  Looking-Glass,"  which  is 
not  only  incorrect  (the  answer 


"in  the  form  of  a  question"  should 
have  been  simply  "What  is  'look- 
ing-glass'?") but  he  even  managed 
to  mangle  the  title  of  the  book!  On 
a  later,  adult  Jeopardy,  October  17, 
2003,  one  of  the  "answers"  was  "in 

THE  LEWIS  CARROLL  POEM,  'bEWARE' 

this  CREATURE,  'my  son'."  Katie 
guessed  "Jabberwocky."  Amazingly, 
despite  hearing  Katie's  answer  and 
Trebek's  reaction,  so  did  Jack!  It  cost 
them. 

On  December  14,  HGTV  presented 
an  hour-long  special  about  Christmas 
at  the  White  House.  This  year's  deco- 
rations featured  children's  books. 
Characters  from  Alice  are  featured  in 
the  State  Dining  Room:  the  tea  party 
scene,  the  Queen  of  Hearts,  and  the 
Tweedles.  Also,  the  pastry  chef  made 
marzipan  figures  of  the  Hatter  and 
White  Rabbit,  perhaps  for  the  Blue 
Room. 

The  Absolut  Vodka  ad  "Absolut 
Wonderland"  unfortunately  is  a  take 
on  "Winter  Wonderland,"  not  ours, 
though  the  possibility  was  intriguing. 
What  would  that  look  like?  "Drink 
me?"  See  www.absolutad.com. 

A  short,  colorful  television  commer- 
cial for  a  St.  Ives  skin  care  product 
uses  a  Wonderland  motif. 

Black  Sabbath's  Ozzy  Osbourne's 
little  chippy-ofif-the-old-block,  Kelly, 
was  supposed  to  make  her  movie 
debut  in  a  low-budget  "contem- 
porary reworking"  of  Wonderland 
called  "Malice  in  Sunderland,"  to 
be  directed  by  Simon  Fellows  and 
scheduled  for  release  in  2004.  Mark 
Byrne  of  What's  The  Story  (Ireland) 
and  Christian  Beutel  of  MagicWorx 
(Germany)  are  co-producing;  Bjorg 
Veland's  BV  International  Pictures 
(Norway)  will  distribute.  Perhaps 
the  end  of  civilization;  perhaps  not. 
After  its  announcement  in  July,  little 
has  been  heard  of  it  and  Mr.  Veland 
recently  emailed  "the  film  has  not 

STARTED  YET  — we  DO  NOT  KNOW 
when  — RIGHT  NOW  THERE  IS  NO 
MOVEMENT."  WheW. 

If  you've  been  looking  for  Vince  Col- 
lins' "hysterically  obscene"  1982  eel 
animation  Malice  in  Wonderland,  it  has 
just  come  to  our  attention  that  you 
can  buy  it  on  a  compilation  video  or 


DVD  called  "General  Chaos:  Uncen- 
sored  Animation"  (1998). 

In  April,  the  BBC's  "Big  Read"  asked 
its  audience  to  nominate  their  favor- 
ite books.  Three  quarters  of  a  million 
votes  were  recorded.  Topping  the  list 
was,  unsurprisingly.  The  Lord  of  the 
Rings;  Wonderland  came  in  at  number 
30. 


THINGS 

Need  a  thirty-foot  inflatable  White 
Rabbit,  Caterpillar,  or  set  of  mush- 
rooms? Look  no  further  than 
www.creatableinflatables.com/ 
wonderland.htm. 

Barnes  8c  Noble  (in  stores,  not  via 
their  web  site)  has  a  nice  set  of 
leather  bookends,  named  "Antique 
Books,"  consisting  of  six  books,  in- 
cluding Wonderland,  arranged  so  that 
two  of  the  books  are  actually  boxes 
with  hinged  lids.  "I  think  they  are  very 
well  done  and  I  have  gotten  myself  a 
pair."  ~  Alan  Tannenbaum 

A  C.  L.  Dodgson  ALS  dated  August  9, 
1892  and  addressed  to  Florence  (most 
likely  Florence  Walters  or  Florence 
Wilkinson)  is  $4,750  from  Lion  Heart 
Autographs,  470  Park  Avenue  South, 
Penthouse,  New  York,  NY  10016; 
212.779-7050;  -7066  fax;  www.lion 
heartautographs.com. 

Electronic  Courseware  Systems'  "Ad- 
ventures in  Musicland"  is  a  collection 
of  music  games  specially  created  for 
children  and  based  on  Wonderland 
characters.  The  CD-ROM  (PC  and 
Mac)  is  $50  and  can  be  ordered 
from  www.mccormicksnet.com/ 
adventur.htm. 

A  six-cassette  "Collector  Box  Set"  of 
Timeless  Treasures,  consisting  of  the 
unabridged  Wonderland,  Looking-Glass, 
Snark,  and  Phantasmagoria  read  by 
Ralph  Cosham,  from  ESI,  PO  Box 
13789,  Arlington  TX  76094;  888.578- 
5798.  $35. 

"Kelly"  and  "Tommy"  as  "Alice  and 
the  Mad  Hatter"  in  the  Barbie-dolls 
Collector  Edition,  www.barbiecollect 
ibles.com/showcase/product.asp? 
type=&:subtype=&:prodiict_id= 
1001845;  800.491-7514. 


50 


New  in  the  Disney  Winter  2003  cata- 
log "Art  &  Collectibles"  section:  an 
Alice  and  the  Caterpillar  "Illuminated 
Figurine"  lamp  ($168);  a  White 
Rabbit  Big  Figurine  with  a  "work- 
ing pocket  watch  clock"  ($128)  [I 
count  three  oxymora  or  paradoxes 
in  that  description! — Ed.];  a  Marie 
Osmond  Queen  of  Hearts  Toddler 
doll  in  porcelain  ($175);  and  three 
new  Harmony  Kingdom  boxes — a 
Queen  of  Hearts  that  opens  to  re- 
veal a  removable  hedgehog  ($94),  a 
White  Rabbit  ($30),  and  a  Cheshire 
Cat  ($54)  which  opens  to  reveal  the 
words  "Twas  brillig"  etched  inside. 
www.DisneyStore.com;  800.237-575 1 . 

Karen  Mortillaro's  first  four  char- 
acters in  the  limited  edition  (300) 
bronze  sculptures  Wonderland 
series  and  some  new  anamorphic 
sculptural  illusions  can  be  seen  at 
www.karenmortillaro.com/gallery/. 
7400  Ethel  Avenue,  North  Hol- 
lywood, CA  91605;  818.503-9913; 
LE@karenmortillaro.com. 

Alexander  Rosenfeld's  "Alice  in 
Wonderland,"  a  pen  and  ink  mural, 
twelve  feet  long  on  vellum  paper,  c. 
1935,  for  sale  by  the  Triggison  Gal- 
lery. www.triggison.com/rosenfeld/ 
rosenfeld.html. 

Peter  Weevers'  vignettes  from  Wonder- 
land (New  York:  Philomel  Books,  1989) 
can  be  seen  at  peter.weevers.free.fr/ 
martgallery.html.  A  price  list  can 
be  found  at  collectalice.home.att. 
net/weevers.html.  Contact  him  at 
peter.weevers@free.fr. 

Complete  set  ($225)  of  seven 
miniature  reproductions  of  an- 
tique Alice  character  dolls  at 
www.mysticmolds.com/catalog.html. 

"Alice  in  Vivaldi's  Four  Seasons:  The 
Music  Game"  CD-ROM  ($20)  from 
www.kidsmusicstage.com.  "Cutting- 
edge,  interactive  musical  entertain- 
ment, games,  and  puzzles"  for  ages  six 
and  up. 


A  fairly  pricey  Alice  doll  from  R. 
John  Wright  (www.rjohnwright.com/ 
alice.html),  the  premiere  piece  in 
the  collection,  stands  approximately 
17"  tall  and  is  exquisitely  detailed.  It 
retails  for  approximately  $1475;  the 
WTiite  Rabbit  ($675)  will  be  available 
in  March,  2004. 

Contrariwise,  a  comic  book  by  Austra- 
lian illustrator  Paul  Rasche  containing 
stories  such  as  "Spuriouser  and  Spu- 
riouser"  and  "666  Impossible  Things 
Before  Breakfast,"  is  an  edgy,  often 
disturbing  and  possibly  offensive  look 
into  the  mind  of  the  cartoonist.  What 
is  never  in  doubt  is  his  talent  and 
affection  for  Carroll.  Order  ( US$10, 
including  postage)  directly  from  him 
at  paul@odd-sock.com;  www.odd- 


sock.com;  205  Smith  St.,  Thornbury, 
Vic  3071,  Australia. 

Batman  Detective  Comics  #787  has  a  Jab- 
berwock  cover  with  the  title  "Through 
the  Looking  Glass"  and  a  major  Mad 
Hatter  story  called  "Mimsy  were  the 
Borogoves,"  jam-packed  with  Carroll 
references. 

Robert  Sabuda  offers  plush  dolls 
inspired  by  his  pop-up  Wonderland 
(p. 36).  See  www.RobertSabuda.com. 

Emily  the  Strange's  2004  calendar 
contains  the  illustration  "We're  all 
strange  here,"  which  you  can  see  in 
KI.  70.26. 

Alice  in  Wonderland  Art  Tatoos  designed 
by  Marty  Noble,  after  the  Tenniel 
originals,  from  Dover.  $1.50. 


MR.    PUNCH'S    DESIGNS    AFTER    NATURE. 

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